Nepal Development Society, Bharatpur, Chitwan, Nepal.
Doctoral Candidate in Epidemiology, Department of Biostatistics and Epidemiology, Hudson College of Public Health, The University of Oklahoma Health Sciences Center (OUHSC), Oklahoma City, OK, United States of America.
PLoS One. 2023 Jan 24;18(1):e0280788. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0280788. eCollection 2023.
Birth weight is a consistent predictor of morbidity and survivability in infancy and later life. This study aims to assess the accuracy of the mother's perception of size at birth to predict low birth weight(LBW). This study used data from Nepal Demographic and Health Survey (NDHS 2016). Information about 5060 mother pairs was obtained from the NDHS dataset. However, birth weight data were available for 3095 children, and therefore they were only included in the further analysis. The predictive accuracy of the mother's perception of size at birth to predict LBW was measured by sensitivity, specificity, positive predictive value, and negative predictive value. Factors associated with the discordance among the mother's perception of birth size and birth weight were calculated using multinomial logistic regression analysis. The mother's perception of birth size had low sensitivity (62%) and positive predictive value (46.7%) but high specificity (90.1%) and negative predictive value (94.4%) to predict the LBW. The overall agreement between birth weight(<2500gram vs > = 2500 grams) and the mother's perceived size at birth (small vs average or above average) was 86% (Kappa = 0.45, 95%CI: 0.40-0.51), which is composed of a higher share of the agreement to identify non-LBW babies(79%) and a low share to identify LBW babies (7%). Among the five categories of mothers' perception of size at birth and birth weight, the agreement was 67.2% (Kappa = 0.29, 95% CI: 0.26-0.33). Education status, ethnicity, multiple births, and sex of the newborn child were significantly associated with the discordance between the mother's perceived size at birth and birth weight. A moderate agreement was found among the mother's perception of birth size and birth weight. Mothers were more likely to correctly identify non-LBW babies compared to LBW babies based on their perception of size at birth. Efforts should be intensified to promote the practice of weighing the baby at birth.
出生体重是婴儿期和生命后期发病率和存活率的一致预测指标。本研究旨在评估母亲对出生时大小的感知预测低出生体重（LBW）的准确性。本研究使用了来自尼泊尔人口与健康调查（NDHS 2016）的数据。从 NDHS 数据集获得了 5060 对母婴的信息。然而，只有 3095 名儿童的出生体重数据可用，因此仅将他们纳入进一步分析。通过灵敏度、特异性、阳性预测值和阴性预测值来衡量母亲对出生时大小的感知预测 LBW 的准确性。使用多项逻辑回归分析计算了与母亲对出生大小的感知与出生体重之间差异相关的因素。母亲对出生大小的感知预测 LBW 的灵敏度（62%）和阳性预测值（46.7%）较低，但特异性（90.1%）和阴性预测值（94.4%）较高。出生体重（<2500 克与≥2500 克）与母亲感知出生时的大小（小与平均或以上）之间的总体一致性为 86%（Kappa = 0.45，95%CI：0.40-0.51），其中包括更高比例的非 LBW 婴儿的识别（79%）和较低比例的 LBW 婴儿的识别（7%）。在母亲感知出生时大小和出生体重的五个类别中，一致性为 67.2%（Kappa = 0.29，95%CI：0.26-0.33）。教育状况、族裔、多胎和新生儿性别与母亲感知出生时大小和出生体重之间的差异显著相关。母亲对出生时大小的感知与出生体重之间存在中度一致性。与基于感知出生时大小的 LBW 婴儿相比，母亲更有可能正确识别非 LBW 婴儿。应加强努力，促进在出生时给婴儿称重的做法。
