Study of foot length measurement as a screening tool to identify low birth weight and preterm neonates

Low birth weight is an important indicator of survival, future growth, and overalldevelopment of the child. It is associated with socio-economic, clinical, racial, hereditary, personal,and geographical factors. Method: This prospective observational study was conducted during the19 months in the nursery and postnatal wards at RDGMC, Ujjain. All live birth newborns wereassessed within 24 hours of birth. All Sick babies requiring NICU care, newborns with congenitalmalformation were excluded from the study. For each newborn recruited in the study length of theleft foot was measured from the heel to the tip of the big toe using a hard transparent plastic rulerwhich was pressed vertically against the babies’ sole and the reading was recorded. The data wasanalyzed in Epidata (version 3.1) and then transferred to Stata10.0 (Stata Corp College Station,Texas, U.S.A) for statistical analysis. Results: (1) Foot length measurement was directly correlatedwith gestational age with cut off being 6.3 cm for 32 weeks,6.6 cm for 36 weeks, and 7.35 cm for >36 weeks. (2) Foot length measurement directly correlated with the birth weight with the cut off forVLBW babies being 6.25 cm, for weight< 2000gm being 6.78 cm and LBW being 7.92 cm.Conclusion: Present study strongly recommends foot length measurement as an easy, fast,accurate, and low-cost tool for predicting prematurity and low birth weight not only in the hospitalsetup but also for community health providers.