Comparison of weight and length at birth of non-Roma and Roma newborn in Serbia.
OBJECTIVE
Roma infants tend to be smaller and are diagnosed as SGA more often than non-Roma infants, suggesting that specific anthropometric norms for these infants may be useful. We aimed to construct population-based centile, gender-specific charts for birth weight and length for singleton Roma infants born from 35 to 42 weeks of gestation and to compare it with anthropometric data of non-Roma infants.


METHODS
We analyzed data on 27,602 non-Roma (53 % males) and 2235 Roma (51 % males) singleton live infants delivered from 2006 to 2012 in South East Serbia. The LMS method was used to estimate the birth weight and length centiles.


RESULTS
Roma infants were up to 12 % lighter and up to 4 % shorter than non-Roma infants. Estimated centile charts for Roma males and females were constructed showing the 3rd, 10th, 25th, 50th, 75th, 90th and 97th centiles.


CONCLUSIONS
We created the separate centile charts for Roma ethnic group. The sample size was sufficient to demonstrate differences in mean birth weights and lengths of at term infants born during the study period.
Children Clinic, Clinical Center Niš, Bul. Dr Z.Djindjica 48a, 18000, Nis, Serbia. stankovic_sandra@yahoo.com.
Sandra
http://orcid.org/0000-0003-3114-0869
S
Stanković
Children Clinic, Clinical Center Niš, Bul. Dr Z.Djindjica 48a, 18000, Nis, Serbia.
Saša
S
Živić
Institute of Public Health, Nis, Serbia.
Aleksandra
A
Ignjatović
Institute of Public Health, Nis, Serbia.
Mariola
M
Stojanović
Institute of Public Health, Nis, Serbia.
Dragan
D
Bogdanović
Institute of Public Health, Nis, Serbia.
Sonja
S
Novak
Children Clinic, Clinical Center Niš, Bul. Dr Z.Djindjica 48a, 18000, Nis, Serbia.
Jelena
J
Vučić
Children Clinic, Clinical Center Niš, Bul. Dr Z.Djindjica 48a, 18000, Nis, Serbia.
Miodrag
M
Stanković
Children Clinic, Clinical Center Niš, Bul. Dr Z.Djindjica 48a, 18000, Nis, Serbia.
Ljiljana
L
Šaranac
Children Clinic, Clinical Center Niš, Bul. Dr Z.Djindjica 48a, 18000, Nis, Serbia.
Cvetković
C
Vesna
Children Clinic, Clinical Center Niš, Bul. Dr Z.Djindjica 48a, 18000, Nis, Serbia.
Predrag
P
Miljković
Institute for Children and Youth, Novi Sad, Vojvodina, Serbia.
Ivana
I
Vorgučin
D000886:Anthropometry / Q000379:methods; D001724:Birth Weight; D001827:Body Height; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007231:Infant, Newborn; D008297:Male; D012016:Reference Values; D012189:Retrospective Studies; D006178:Romani People / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D055771:Serbia
Birth length; Birth weight; Roma