Association of maternal nutritional status with neonatal anthropometry: A cross-sectional study.

OBJECTIVE: To identify the association of maternal nutritional status with neonatal anthropometry. METHODS: The multi-centre, cross-sectional survey was conducted at two government and 5 private hospitals in Lahore, Pakistan, from July 2016 to August 2017, and comprised mothers and their neonates. A semi-structured self-administered questionnaire was used along with data from patient files. Maternal nutritional status was assessed through biochemical profile. Standard procedures and safety measures were employed during data collection of neonatal anthropometric measurements. Data was analysed using SPSS 22. RESULTS: Of the 800 subjects, 407(50.9%) were from government hospitals and 393(49.1%) from private hospitals. The mean maternal age was 27.72+14.42 years. Among the neonates, 365(45.6%) were girls and 435(54.4%) were boys. Significantly lower anthropometric measurements were noted in mothers with poor haemoglobin, haematocrit, red blood cell, fasting glucose levels as well as those with higher uric acid, and lower serum albumin, total protein, and in those with blood in urine (p<0.05). CONCLUSIONS: Maternal biochemical markers were found to be critical in evaluating mothers at risk of delivering neonates with low anthropometric measurements.

Acuracy and concordance of anthropometric indicators and body composition in heart failure / Precisão e concordância de indicadores antropométricos e composição corporal na insuficiência cardíaca

Background: Anabolic/catabolic disorder in heart failure (HF) favors cardiac cachexia, implying a reduction in HF survival. Objectives: To assess the accuracy and concordance of the diagnosis of protein malnutrition and excess fat among the anthropometric and body composition methods in individuals with HF. Method: A study of accuracy that included 60 individuals with HF. Body mass index (BMI), arm circumference (AC), triceps skinfold thickness (TST), adductor pollicis muscle thickness (APMT), arm muscle circumference (AMC) and corrected arm muscle area (cAMA). Fat free mass index (FFMI) and body fat percentage (BF%), obtained by electrical bioimpedance (EBI), were used to compare the diagnosis of protein malnutrition and excess fat. Accuracy was assessed by calculating sensitivity, specificity, positive and negative predictive value. The concordance of the EBI diagnosis and other methods was performed by the chi-square test and kappa (k) statistic, where p<0.05 was considered significant.Results: Higher frequencies of protein malnutrition were identified by cAMA and AMC, and excess fat by BF%. BMI presented low sensitivity (43%) and accuracy (38.5%), with moderate concordance (0.50). AMC sensitivity was 86%, accuracy 66.4%, and acceptable concordance (0.36) compared to FFMI. Similar percentages of moderate sensitivity and low accuracy were observed for TST and BMI.Conclusion: AMC may be useful to identify protein malnutrition and TST has not been adequate to diagnose adiposity. BMI was not sensitive to assess muscle and adipose reserve. EBI was more accurate