Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
. 2020 Jan-Mar;45(1):8-11.
doi: 10.4103/ijcm.IJCM_379_18.

Maternal Ability to Correctly Detect Significant Jaundice in Indian Neonates

Alok Yadav  1 , Amit Devgan  2 , Subhash Chandra Shaw  2 , Puja Dudeja  3
Affiliations

Maternal Ability to Correctly Detect Significant Jaundice in Indian Neonates

Alok Yadav et al. Indian J Community Med. 2020 Jan-Mar.

Abstract

Background: The ability of mothers to correctly detect jaundice in their newborns is largely unknown. The objective was to ascertain the ability of mother to correctly detect the presence of significant jaundice in her newborn.

Materials and methods: This cross-sectional study was conducted in a tertiary care hospital in eastern India from February 2015 to July 2016. All inborn neonates more than 34 weeks' gestation were included. Congenital malformations, perinatal asphyxia, neonatal sepsis, readmission after discharge, and isoimmunization were excluded. A total of 505 inborn newborns were independently assessed by the mother and the treating pediatrician for significant jaundice every day till discharge. Each newborn underwent total serum bilirubin estimation on suspicion of significant jaundice by either of the two or at discharge, whichever was earlier.

Results: The sensitivity, specificity, positive predictive value (PPV), and negative predictive value of maternal detection of significant jaundice was 51.47%, 88.33%, 39.29%, and 92.12%, respectively.

Conclusion: Mothers have poor sensitivity and PPV to detect significant neonatal jaundice in the Indian population.

Keywords: Maternal detection; neonatal jaundice; predictive ability.

PubMed Disclaimer

Conflict of interest statement

There are no conflicts of interest.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Study flow
See this image and copyright information in PMC

References

    1. Gregory MP, Martin CR, Cloherty JP. Neonatal hyperbilirubinemia. In: Cloherty JP, Eichenwald EC, Hansen AR, Stark AR, editors. Manual of Neonatal Care. 6th ed. New Delhi: Wolters Kluwer Pvt., Ltd; 2012. pp. 304–39.
    1. Young Infants Clinical Signs Study Group. Clinical signs that predict severe illness in children under age 2 months: A multicentre study. Lancet. 2008;371:135–42. - PubMed
    1. Agarwal R, Paul VK, Deorari AK. Newborn infants. In: Paul VK, Bagga A, editors. Ghai Essential Paediatrics. 8th ed. New Delhi: CBS Publishers and Distributors; 2013. pp. 172–6.
    1. Madlon-Kay DJ. Recognition of the presence and severity of newborn jaundice by parents, nurses, physicians, and icterometer. Pediatrics. 1997;100:E3. - PubMed
    1. Ballard JL, Khoury JC, Wedig K, Wang L, Eilers-Walsman BL, Lipp R. New Ballard score, expanded to include extremely premature infants. J Pediatr. 1991;119:417–23. - PubMed