The assessment of anthropometrical measurements of newborns and the incidence of fetal malnutrition in Erzurum region*

47 Abstract: We included in this study 1100 newborns whose gestational ages were between 26 and 42 weeks. Of these infants, 323(29.4%) were preterm. The others 777(70.6%) were term infants. In term newborns, the mean weight, length, head circumference and ponderal indexes of males were significantly higher than those of females (p<0.01, p<0.01, p<0.01, p<0.05, respectively); in preterm infants there were no significant differences between the two sexes in these anthropometrical measurements (p>0.05). When the whole study group was evaluated by ponderal index, the rates of malnourished, well-nourished and overnourished infants were 8.3%, 82.8% and 8.9%, respectively. Of fetally malnourished infants 49.5% were premature and 50.5% were full-term. Furthermore, 50.4% of these infants were males and 39.6% were females. There was no significant difference in malnutrition rate between male and female infants or between term and preterm infants (p>0.05).