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ELECTRONIC ARTICLE:
Michael S. Kramer, Robert W. Platt, Shi Wu Wen, K.S. Joseph, Alexander Allen, Michal Abrahamowicz, Béatrice Blondel, Gérard Bréart, and for the Fetal/Infant Health Study Group of the Canadian Perinatal Surveillance System
A New and Improved Population-Based Canadian Reference for Birth Weight for Gestational Age
Pediatrics 2001; 108: e35 [Abstract] [Full text] [PDF]
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[Read eLetters] Missing reference
Philip J Beeby   (15 October 2001)

Missing reference 15 October 2001
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Philip J Beeby,
Neonatologist
Royal Prince Alfred Hospital

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Re: Missing reference

pbeeby{at}med.usyd.edu.au Philip J Beeby

I assume it was just an unfortunate oversight, but the authors made no reference to population based, sex-specific birth weight percentiles using a similar large dataset (Beeby PJ, Bhuta T, and Taylor LK. New South Wales population-based birthweight percentile charts. J Paediatr Child Health 1996; 32: 512-518.) It is strange they should reference so many older, inferior studies but not reference recent, similar studies.

Like theirs, ours used a similat method to "clean" the inevitable data problems one sees with population data. The values for P50, P90 and mean are remarkably similar, in contrast to the references they did cite which were significantly different. Our centile charts are available for download from our unit's website: http://www.cs.nsw.gov.au/rpa/neonatal

Philip J Beeby Department of Neonatal Medicine Royal Prince Alfred Hospital Missenden Rd, Camperdown NSW 2050, Australia