Weights of apparently well Filipino infants · Rare Periodicals

Title

Weights of apparently well Filipino infants

Creator

Tantengco, Victor

Davis, Ruth Alice

Valenzuela, Amanda Vergara

Language

English

Source

Volume XV (4) April-June 1959

Year

1958

Subject

Infants

Body weight

Newborn infants -- Care

Medicine -- Periodicals

Rights

In Copyright - Educational Use Permitted

Fulltext

WEIGHTS OF APPARENTLY WELL FILIPINO INFANTS VICTOR TANTENGCO. M.D., RUTH ALICE DAVIS * . M.D., M.P.U. * Visiting Assistant Professor from John Hopkins School of Hysteric and Public Health. Ind AMANDA VERGARA-VALENZUELA, M.D.. M.P.R. Institute of Hygiene University of the Philippines This study was primarily intended to provide weight standards for a study on mortality from diarrhea-enteritis among infants in Manila whose nutritional status needed to be evaluated. This paper ia an account of the methods used and the re sults of collecting weight measurements of children during their first year of life. Estrada and Cancio(l), conducted a similar study in 1951. They used a total of 2482 infanta enrolled in the Well Baby Clinic of the Department of Pediatrics of the College of Medi cine, University of Santo Tomas. Weight and height readings at birth, at 2 weeks and for every month of age thereafter up to 12 months were presented. We did not use their results for several reasons. First, we honestly believed we might be able to get measurements of children under two years of age to which age group the diarrhea study subjects belonged. Pre liminary examination of child records in two health centers revealed that there was a sad dearth of measurements beyond infancy: we had to abandon this plan. Secondly, it was felt that a more representative group of children than that served by one clinic could be studied. Sex specific measurements were also preferred as it was the intention to use the weight to help evaluate the nutritional requirements of each boy or girl in the original diarrhea study. Del Mundo and Adiao(2) published weights and heights as well as head and chest measurements of Filipino newborns. Again, we needed to have data beyond the newborn stage. It 215 216 ACTA MEDICA PHI LIPPIN A was, therefore, decided that data be collected for use in the enteritis project. MATERIALS AND METHOD The records of 836 infants from four hospitals and three health centers were examined and weight measurements from birth, at monthly intervals, to the 12th month of age were collected. A set of criteria was formulated and served as guide for the inclusion of infants in the study. The choice of well baby clinics and health centers was based on the availability of records. The project was originally planned to include babies up to two years; however due to the diminishing num ber of infants and children reporting to the clinics from the 7th month and after, it was deemed unnecessary to collect data, insufficient to be of any use, beyond the first year of age. The criteria for inclusion of an infant in the study were: 1. A well child one year of age or under: An infant free from illness during his lifetime, or a child with 1-2 days low grade fever, 6-6 mild respira tory tract infections, and/or 2 mild gastro-intestinal upsets during the year may be considered well. For determining the degree of severity of the infection of the respiratory tract, the occurrence and frequency of coughing and the duration of the illness are taken into account. A mild gastro-intestinal upset should not last more than 2-3 days, nor cause noticeable dehydration, loss of appetite or behavior changes. Measurements of the child can be utilized up to the time of occurrence of any severe illness. 2. Only infants born on or since January 1, 1952 would be included in the study, The year 1952 was arbitra rily set as we wanted to get as comparable a group of infants as we could to our diarrhea group who were bom within the last five years. 3. Gestation age of at least 85 weeks or a birth weight of at least 2275 grams or 5 pounds. 4. Each clinic record to be included must contain the fol lowing information: a. date of birth AVERAGE WEIGHT OF FILIPINO INFANTS 217 b, length of gestation or birth weight. If this is not in the child’s record, it may be in the mother’s chart If no information is available in the latter chart, a statement whether the child is full term or premature is made in the baby’s record. c. reasonably complete morbidity history of child for life span prior to each weight measurement. (The morbidity history may be summarized as a brief monthly evaluation by clinic physician or pediatri cian). The child may he considered well in the absence of health evaluation if such lack does not extend to a period beyond 3 months. Each baby may have one record for the well baby clinic and another for general clinic; in which case, both re cords have to be inspected. d. only weight measurements done on a beam balance would be considered. These need not be available for each month for each child. (Obviously only weights taken in the clinic, except birth weight, which may be taken upon home visit, were includ ed). A number of measurements taken by nurses during home visits had to be discarded as these were measured by instruments other than the beam bal ance in the clinic. If two weights were recorded in one month, we took the measurement with an al lowance of plus or minus 10 days taken closest to the last birthday; e.g. a child born on June 2, 1952 may be weighed July 10 and July 20; the weight taken on July 10 is used and recorded for one month of age. e. sex of child. Records of infants seen at the following hospital well baby clinics and health centers were'examined and used in the study: 1. Maternity and Children’s Hospital 2. Philippine General Hospital 3. St Luke’s Hospital 4. University of Santo Tomas Hospital 5. San Francisco del Monte Health Center 218 ACTA MKDICA PH1LIPP1NA 6. Novaliches Health Center 7. Rosario Reyes Health Center The number and percentage of infants and measurements, excluding birth weight, by source, for separate and combined sexes; and the median weights for each sex, according to age. are shown in the different tables. Table 1 shows a breakdown of the number and percentage of the infants by source of records. The number from hospital well baby clinics comprising 81.7 per cent of the total studied, outnumber by more than four times those from the health cen ters. By and large, the total number of deliveries from these hospitals far exceed those from the city and suburban health centers; hence, the greater number of records to choose from. Although health centers had many well kept records, several could not be used because they fell short of the requirements for inclusion of a record in the study. NUMBER AND PERCENTAGE OF INFANTS, BY SOURCE TABUS 1 HOSPITALS Males Fenales Both Sexes Percent of Grand Total Philippine General Hospital Maternity & Children’s 136 101 237 28.8 Hospital 94 88 182 22.1 St Luke's Hospital 80 65 146 17.6 V.S.T. Hospital 61 48 103 13.2 TOTAL 871 802 673 815 HEALTH CENTERS Novaliches 28 25 SI 822 San Fran deco del Monta 40 32 72 8.7 Rosario Reyes 15 12 27 3.8 GRAND TOTAL 462 371 823 99.9 Table 2 shows a total number of 2141 weight measure ments, excluding birth weights, from the records of 823 infanta. Each child may have one, sometimes two or more measure ments taken at various intervals, which were utilized in the study. Hence, the measurements are neither strictly crossAVERAGE WEIGHT OF FILIPINO INFANTS 219 sectional for the group, nor longitudinal; but a combination of both. The original plan was to collect at least 100 measure ments for each month of age, but this did not materialise be cause of the decreasing numbers, of children reporting for check up during the second half of infancy. TABLE 2 NUMBER AND PERCENTAGE OF MEASUREMENTS, BY SOURCE HOSPITALS Males Females Both Sexes Percent of Grand Total Philippine General Hospital 422 310 732 34.2 Maternity & Children’s Hospital 130 118 248 11.6 St Luke’s Hospital 174 147 321 15.0 11S.T. Hospital 189 175 364 17.0 TOTAL 916 750 1664 77vB HEALTH CENTERS Novalichea 93 116 209 9*8 San Francisco del Monte 124 104 228 10.6 Rosario Reyes 16 23 39 IS TOTAL 233 243 476 22.3 GRAND TOTAL 1148 993 2141 100.0 Table 3 gives the number of measurements collected from the various sources during the first and last halves of infancy. TABLE 3 NUMBER OF MEASUREMENTS. BY SOURCE AND AGE GROUP Hospital Philippine General Hospital Maternity & Children's Hospital St Luke's Hospital U.8.T. Hospital Health Centers Naval idles San Francisco det Monta Rosario Reyes TOTAL Age in Months 1—6 7—12 668 64 235 13 278 43 213 151 141 68 159 G9 34 5 1728 413 220 ACTA MEDICA PHI LI PPI NA RESULTS Birth weights for 357 males and 296 females were obtained. The males had a mean weight of 3,063 grams and a standard deviation of ± 425 grams. The females had a mean weight of 2,999 grams and standard deviation of * 300 grams. In Table 4 the median weight for given age is shown to gether with the 10th and 90th percentile points. The numeric al values have been rounded to the nearest hundred grams. ACKNOWLEDGMENTS We wish to express our deep appreciation for the coopera tion and help extended to us by the Department Heads, Well Baby Clinic Staff, Health Center physicians and nurses of the Philippine General Hospital, University of Santo Tomas Hos pital, St. Luke's Hospital, Maternity and Children’s Hospital, and the Novaliches, San Francisco del Monte, and Rosario Reyes Health Centers. We acknowledge with gratitude the transpor tation facilities afforded us by the Manila Health Department. REFERENCES 1. ESTRADA, F. and CANCIO, R.: Standard Meaaureraente in Filipino Infants During the First Year of Life. Philippine Journal of Pediatries 2: 1-6, (April-June), 1968. 2. DEL MUNDO, F. and CRUZ-ADIAO, A.: Meaaurementa of 10,839 Newborn Filipino Babies (A Follow-up Study). The Journal of the Philippine Medical Association, 29: 506-608 (October), 1963 MEDIAN WEIGHT, 10th AND 90th PERCENTILES FOR MALE AND FEMALE INFANTS, BY AGE (Values raunded off to nearest 100 rrfima) TABLE 4 MALES FEMALES Age in Months No. of Measure ments Percentile 90th Age in Months No. of Measure ments Percentile 10th 50th (Median) 10th 50th (Median) 90th 1 2SB 3500 4100 4900 1 229 3300 3900 4700 2 19$ 4300 5000 5800 2 177 4000 4700 5500 3 159 4900 5700 6600 3 126 4700 5500 6400 4 126 5200 6500 7600 4 102 5200 6100 7200 5 98 5900 6700 7700 5 81 6600 6400 7400 6 94 6400 7200 8300 6 87 5800 G90O 7700 7 79 6600 7600 8600 7 68 6100 7100 8100 8 50 6800 7800 8600 8 51 6800 7600 8700 9 35 7300 8100 9400 9 29 7000 7800 9000 10 24 7500 8700 MOO 10 22 7400 8300 9600 SP’.-®] 11 20 7800 8500 9600 11 12 7300 8200 9700 12 14 8200 9200 10500 12 14 7900 8700 9200 AVERAGE WEIGHT OF FILIPINO INFANTS 8

pages

215-221