A STUDY OF CORRELATION OF POSTNATAL FOOT LENGTH AND GESTATIONAL AGE AND COMPARISION WITH VARIOUS METHODS OF GESTATIONAL AGE ASSESSMENT

Abstract

Introduction Foot length is quite simple as a proxy parameter, can be measured easily by a well calibrated ruler or tape and does not require much expertise which can help for early identification of preterm and low birth weight babies at the rural setup and early reference of high risk babies to higher centers to help in decreasing neonatal mortality and morbidity. This study has done to find a correlation between foot length, birth weight and gestational age assessed by various methods in both preterm and term babies and the utility of newborn foot length as screening tool to identify preterm babies.