NEW BALLARD SCORING SYSTEM; CAN IT BE SIMPLIFIED..!

Background:-Accurate determination of neonatal gestational age (GA) is important for guiding both individual infant management and care-seeking and for epidemio-logic purposes. This study was conducted to assess the accuracy of the Simplified Scoring System (SSS) derived from New Ballard scoring System which is simple to evaluate, easy to learn. Objective:-To compare accuracy of NBSS with SSS using LMP corroborated by USG as Reference Standard. Method:-The gestational ages of 524 neonates were estimated by two methods and were compared with the gestational age computed from USG using Pearson coefficient. Validity and accuracy of each method was compared with GA by USG Results:-This was a prospective observational study based on single cross sectional sample of recently delivered neonates at the tertiary care hospital. The GA was calculated by NBSS, SSS and LMP correlated with USG. The highest correlation was found with New Ballard score i.e. 0.73 and correlation with Simplified score and GA-LMP were 0.67, 0.72 respectively. The statistical mean difference of Simplified score system underestimated the GA by 0.23 weeks, whereas the New Ballard score underestimated the GA by 0.09 weeks. However this difference was statically not significant. Conclusion:- SSS has been proposed as simple, easy to administer, having comparable results for assessment of GA. The SSS has comparable validity, accuracy and moderate reliability to the NBSS.