The accuracy of determining newborn’s maturity between New Ballard’s score, Ballard’s score, and first day of last menstrual period

Abstract

Background Developing country such as Indonesia needs a tool to assess gestational age which is simple, practical, cheap, fast, and accurate. In 1991 the Ballard maturation score was refined and expanded to achieve greater accuracy and called New Ballard score. Objective The purpose of this study was to determine the correlation between gestational age assessed by New Ballard score, Ballard score, and by the first day of last menstrual period (LMP). Methods A cross sectional study has been carried out in Dr. Wahidin Sudirohusodo, Ibnu Sina, Labuang Baji, and St. Fatimah Hospitals in Makassar, from July 1 st , 2006 until January 31 st , 2007. This study included healthy newborns, aged 15 minutes to 24 hours born to mothers who knew with certainty the first day of their LMP. Diagnostic test was used to analyze the data. Results There were 248 subjects included in this study. The results showed that there was a strong correlation between gestational age by LMP and New Ballard score (r=0.97), LMP and Ballard score (r=0.95), as well as between New Ballard score and Ballard score (r=0.99). New Ballard score was more accurate and had a higher association coefficient (k=0.85) than did Ballard score (k=0.82) to LMP in identifying premature baby. The sensitivity of New Ballard score to identify premature baby was 87.7%, specificity 96.3%, positive predictive value 95.2% and negative predictive value 90.2 %. Conclusions New Ballard score can be used to replace Ballard score if LMP can not be assessed. Further study needs to be done with bigger sample, involving other paramedics and unhealthy newborn babies.

Keywords

• New Ballard Score
• Ballard Score
• First day of last menstrual period