The Accuracy of Broselow Tape Weight Estimate among Pediatric Population

Abstract

Objective. To determine the accuracy of the Broselow Tape (BT) versions 2007 and 2011 in estimating weight among pediatric population. Methods. A cross-sectional study was conducted at King Fahad Medical City and six schools across Riyadh province on 1–143-month-old children. BT 2007 and 2011 estimated weights were recorded. Both tapes via the child's height produce an estimated weight, which was compared with the actual weight. Results. A total of 3537 children were recruited. The height (cm) of the subjects was 97.7 ± 24.1 and the actual weight (kg) was 16.07 ± 8.9, whereas the estimated weight determined by BT 2007 was 15.87 ± 7.56 and by BT 2011 was 16.38 ± 7.95. Across all the five age groups, correlation between actual weight and BT 2007 ranged between 0.702 and 0.788, while correlation between actual weight and BT 2011 ranged between 0.698 and 0.788. Correlation between BT 2007 and BT 2011 across all the five age groups ranged from 0.979 to 0.989. Accuracy of both the tape versions was adversely affected when age was >95 months and body weight was >26 kilograms. Conclusions. Our study showed that BT 2007 and 2011 provided accurate estimation of the body weight based on measured body height. However, 2011 version provided more precise estimate for weight.

Comparison of weight estimation methods in hospitalized Brazilian children and adolescents

“…The results obtained with the Broselow tape, nevertheless, were best when compared to the mathematical methods, confirming that the effectiveness of the length-based method is better than the effectiveness of those approaches that take only age into consideration (4,9,16,(21)(22)(23).…”

Accuracy of Broselow tape in estimating the weight of the child for management of pediatric emergencies in Nepalese population

“…Using newer edition of the tape presumably creates a greater error in estimating the weight of our populations compared to prior edition as it has been modified to minimize weight underestimation in obese children in the USA. There are studies done in various parts of the world providing the adaptability and efficiency of the Broselow tape in measuring the weight of children [10,11,25] while other studies had contradictory conclusions [13][14][15][16][17]22]. Studies from Kenya [10] and South Africa [10,25] showed that the Broselow tape estimated weights varied only minimally from the actual weight.…”

“…In a simulated pediatric emergency, color coding significantly reduced the deviation from recommended doses [8]. The studies done in various parts of the world have shown that the Broselow tape accurately measured the weight of children [10][11][12] while some studies showed it to be inaccurate [13][14][15][16][17]. The scenario is quite different in low-income countries like Nepal [15,18,19].…”

The Accuracy of the Broselow™ Pediatric Emergency Tape for Weight Estimation in an Omani Paediatric Population

“…These findings are in agreement with those reported by other studies conducted in various parts of the world, including Saudi Arabia, Korea, the USA, India and Kenya. 2,8,[21][22][23][24] Furthermore, other indices also suggested that the BT sufficiently predicts actual weight. Although the BT slightly overestimated the actual weight of the population in the current study by 0.5 kg, the percentage of error still fell within acceptable limits at <30%.…”

“…This implies that the BT performs better in lighter children, a finding which has also been reported in other studies. 2,7,8,21,[23][24][25][26][27] The BT has been shown to perform differently in various populations. Two studies from India and a study from south Sudan have reported that the BT overestimates weight.…”