Differential birthweights and the clinical relevance of birthweight standards in a multiethnic society.

Using a computer-stored database, birthweights and related variables over 25,000 infants born in Amsterdam (The Netherlands) were analysed retrospectively. Only after allowing for maternal height, did the difference between mean birthweights of Dutch and Asian infants disappear, whereas Negroid and Mediterranean infants continued to show respectively lower and higher means than the others. These results confirm that the birthweight standards presently used are inappropriate for detection of deviant weight in non-Dutch groups.