You are here

Article Text

Article menu
Download PDFPDF
Short report
Predicting significant hyperbilirubinaemia using birth weight
  1. V J Flaherman1,
  2. A Ferrara2,3,
  3. T B Newman1,2,4
  1. 1
    Division of General Pediatrics, University of California, San Francisco, California, USA
  2. 2
    Division of Research, Kaiser Permanente Medical Care Program, Oakland, California, USA
  3. 3
    Department of Epidemiology, School of Public Health and Community Medicine, University of Washington, Seattle, Washington, USA
  4. 4
    Department of Epidemiology and Biostatistics, University of California, San Francisco, California, USA
  1. Dr V Flaherman, University of California, San Francisco, 3333 California St, Box 0503, San Francisco, CA 94143-0503, USA; FlahermanV{at}peds.ucsf.edu

Abstract

Background: A recent study proposed a risk factor scoring system for prediction of hyperbilirubinaemia that assigned increased risk to infants of higher birth weight.

Objective: To investigate this novel finding in a large, retrospective cohort analysis.

Methods: 105 384 newborns (⩾2000 g and ⩾36 weeks) were analysed, and the effect of higher birth weight on total serum bilirubin (TSB) ⩾342 μmol/l was reported using logistic regression to control for gestational age, scalp injury diagnosis, maternal diabetes, method of delivery and other confounders.

Results: The odds ratio for the effect of an additional 500 g of birth weight on TSB ⩾342 μmol/l declined with increasing gestational age from 1.55 (95% CI 1.28 to 1.87) at 36 weeks to 1.30 (95% CI 1.12 to 1.50) at 37 weeks and 1.14 (95% CI 1.01 to 1.29) at 38 weeks. There was no association for infants ⩾39 weeks.

Conclusion: Higher birth weight predicts TSB ⩾342 μmol/l in 36–38 week infants, but not in infants ⩾39 weeks. Further research should explore the causal mechanism for the association in less-mature infants.

https://doi.org/10.1136/adc.2007.130880

Statistics from Altmetric.com

    Request Permissions

    If you wish to reuse any or all of this article please use the link below which will take you to the Copyright Clearance Center’s RightsLink service. You will be able to get a quick price and instant permission to reuse the content in many different ways.

    View Full Text

    Footnotes

    • Competing interests: None.