Validity of approaches to estimating weight in children attended in the emergency department
Ballesteros-Peña S, Fernández-Aedo I, Vallejo-de la Hoz G, Pérez-Llarena G, Echeandia-Lastra I
Affiliation of the authors
Hospital de Basurto, Bilbao, Spain. Facultad de Medicina y Enfermería. Universidad del País Vasco/Euskal Herriko Unibertsitatea, Leioa, Spain. Hospital de Galdakao-Usansolo, Galdakao, Spain. Hospital de Cruces, Barakaldo, Spain.
Ballesteros-Peña S, Fernández-Aedo I, Vallejo-de la Hoz G, Pérez-Llarena G, Echeandia-Lastra I. Validity of approaches to estimating weight in children attended in the emergency department. Emergencias. 2019;31:239-44
Summary
Objectives.
To determine the validity of different ways of estimating body weight in children attended in the emergency department.
Methods.
Prospective cross-sectional study of a series of patients between 1 month and 14 years of age attended in 2 tertiary care hospitals in the Basque Country, Spain. We used 9 different ways to estimate body weight and compared the estimates to real weight by calculating the mean intraclass correlation coefficient, the mean difference between real and estimated weights, and the proportion of measurements within 10% and 20% of the real weight.
Results.
Five hundred fifteen pediatric patients were weighed and their weights estimated. All estimates had a high degree of agreement with real weight. A parent’s weight estimate performed best: 86.5% of parental estimates were within 10% of the real weight. The next best estimate was achieved with the cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) rule developed at Hospital del Niño Jesús: 65% of the estimates were within the 10% margin. Fewer than 40% of the weight estimates based on formulas using anthropometric measurements were within the 10% margin.
Conclusions.
A parent’s estimate of weight is a valid approximation in children of all ages. When this estimate is not available, the CPR rule of Hospital del Niño Jesús would be the method of choice.
