Abstract

CAINO, Silvia; ADAMO, Paula; ABEYA-GILARDON, Enrique O  and  LEJARRAGA, Horacio. Comparación de dos técnicas de medición de peso en niños menores de cuatro años. Arch. argent. pediatr. [online]. 2006, vol.104, n.3, pp.217-220. ISSN 0325-0075.

Introduction. Weight is a widely used anthropometric measurement as indicator of health and nutritional status in children. Usually, an appropriate plate scale is used to weigh infants (direct weight) but in some occasions, it is necessary to measure weight in an indirect way. Indirect weight is measured as the difference between the weight of the child held up by the mother and the actual weight of the mother alone. Objective. To compare the two techniques of weight measurement (direct and indirect) in children younger than four years of age. Population. A convenience sample of children younger than 4 years attending at Hospital of Pediatría "Prof. Dr. Juan P. Garrahan". Material and methods. The same observer measured each child's weight with the direct method on a mechanical scale for infants at the Laboratory of Anthropometry (precision, 10 g) and with the indirect method on an electronic scale (precision, 50 g). Both scales were previously calibrated. The intra-observer measurement error was of 37 g in the electronic scale (CV 0.06%) and 4.6 g in the mechanical plate scale (CV 0.05%). Arithmetic mean, CI 95%, SD and CV of the differences between the direct method and the indirect method were calculated. A paired Student t test was performed. Results. 49 children between 0.17 and 3.97 years of age participated in the study (weight range: 3,61-15.55 kg). The observed average difference between both methods (direct-indirect) was of 26.5 grams (±106.6 g), CV 0.58%, IC95% 10.7-42.4 g. This difference was statistically significant (p: 0.0015). Conclusions: Weight measurement with an indirect technique underestimated the weight of child as compared with the direct technique. The importance of this difference will depend on the precision needed for evaluating the weight measurement.

Keywords : Anthropometry; Measurement techniques; Weight.

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