The Journal of nutrition
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The Journal of nutrition · Nov 2017
ReviewNew Option in the Lives Saved Tool (LiST) Allows for the Conversion of Prevalence of Small-for-Gestational-Age and Preterm Births to Prevalence of Low Birth Weight.
Background: The Lives Saved Tool (LiST) is a software model that estimates the health impact of scaling up interventions on maternal and child health. One of the outputs of the model is an estimation of births by fetal size [appropriate-for-gestational-age (AGA) or small-for-gestational-age (SGA)] and by length of gestation (term or preterm), both of which influence birth weight. LiST uses prevalence estimates of births in these categories rather than of birth weight categories, because the causes and health consequences differ between SGA and preterm birth. ⋯ In Latin America, 0.4% of term-AGA, 34.4% of term-SGA, 32.3% of preterm-AGA, and 100.0% of preterm-SGA births were LBW. Conclusions: The simple conversion factor proposed here allows for the estimation of LBW within LiST for most LMICs. This will allow LiST users to approximate the impact of their health programs on LBW prevalence via the impact on SGA and preterm prevalence.