Head Circumference of Babies at Birth in Nigeria

Abstract

Background and Objectives Measuring head circumference (HC) of newborns is an important tool for evaluating intra-uterine brain development. HC reference charts currently in use in Nigeria are not representative of the local population. We thus present locally derived HC reference data for Nigerian infants at birth. Subjects and Methods We reviewed birth records of all infants at the Jos University Teaching Hospital (JUTH) over a 10 year period from January 2006. JUTH is a tertiary care center offering obstetric services to a large population of women in Jos and its environs. All births with gestational age between 28 and 42 weeks were included in the study. STATA version 14 was used to calculate gestational age associated HC percentile measurements. Results We included 18 282 babies to generate the reference values. The mean HC value was 34.4 ± 2.1 cm (M = 34.6 ± 2.16 cm, F = 34.1 ± 2.02 cm, p < 0.001). Our HC reference values significantly differ from the USA and INTERGROWTH-21 charts currently in use in our country. Mean HC was higher in male infants compared with female infants. This difference was uniformly so across all gestational age groups. Conclusions The use of our locally derived HC reference values could be more appropriate in defining normal head growth in Nigerian infant populations thereby improving newborn care.

Child Electronic Growth Monitoring System: An innovative and sustainable approach for establishing the Kaduna Infant Development (KID) Study in Nigeria

“…Even with recruitment at the immunisation clinic, we were able to recruit only a small proportion of this category of mothers. Despite the baseline underrepresentation of mothers giving birth at home, the distribution of newborn anthropometric measurements was consistent with other Nigerian studies and INTERGROWTH-21 [40][41][42][43]. In the sub-study, we observed that the women giving birth at home were less educated and displayed lower utilisation of maternal health services including antenatal care, attendance by health professional during delivery and postnatal family planning.…”

“…We assessed the external validity of the anthropometric measurements for the pilot KID Birth Cohort Study by comparing with standards of other Nigerian studies and INTERGROWTH-21 (Table S2). [40][41][42][43] The sub-study participants included individuals listed in CEGROMS at 22 months of the pilot study (October 2018) and have a phone number. Risk difference (RD) was used to assess the association of baseline maternal characteristics and participation in the sub-study.…”

Study of Cephalic Index in Newborns of Kavre Region

“…Many studies reported the mean values to be higher than conducted study but observed the similar trend revealed females had lower values than males. 21,22,27 In newborns, the mean head circumference was noticed to have females values higher than that of males which is not consistent with the current study. 8 The author mentioned that Kanuri and Bura groups of newborns had similar pattern who reported males mean head circumference values were higher than females.…”

“…7 Head circumference: Few studies reported the mean value of head circumference which is not supported by the results of the current study. 4,8,14,22 Golalipur et al observed the mean value of head circumference among Turkman (346.42±14.06) and Fars (346.39±17.82) group. These findings differ from the present study regarding head circumference.…”

The factors affecting the physical development of neonates in pregnant women with or without gestational diabetes mellitus

“…Some studies have also found a gender correlation with neonatal BW was higher in male than female newborns [ 38 , 39 ]. A study [ 40 ] in Nigeria showed that mean HC was higher in male neonates than that in females in all gestational age groups.…”