Variance in Anthropometric Measurements of Neonates and Children
Research type
Research Study
Full title
Assessing the inter-operator variance in measurements of head circumference and length/height of neonates and children
IRAS ID
254407
Contact name
Aneurin Young
Contact email
Sponsor organisation
University Hospital Southampton
Duration of Study in the UK
1 years, 6 months, 0 days
Research summary
Premature babies and sick children need careful management of their nutrition for them to grow and recover from illness properly. It is important to measure their growth accurately so that we know whether they are growing well or not. Clinical staff routinely measure the weight, length and head circumference (the distance around their heads at the widest point) of babies and children. This study aims to assess how accurately clinical staff are able to measure the length/height and head circumference of babies and children. Knowing this information is important when developing new measurement techniques, as it will allow us to compare the accuracy of the new techniques to the current manual methods. There is a need to try to improve current measuring techniques that might enable measurements to be done more quickly or with less handling making it better for our patients.
Participating staff will measure the length and head circumference of babies or children under two, or the height of older children, and we will assess their accuracy and how much they differ when measuring the same baby. The study will be carried out in a children's hospital including a neonatal unit in the UK. It will involve staff members who usually measure children and will include babies who may be premature, but will not be so unwell that measuring them several times would be expected to affect their health or treatment. The study will take twelve months to complete.REC name
West Midlands - Black Country Research Ethics Committee
REC reference
19/WM/0199
Date of REC Opinion
31 Jul 2019
REC opinion
Further Information Favourable Opinion