Comparison of Parkin Score and New Ballard Score for Gestational Age Assessment in Newborns with Ultrasound Scan as the Standard Reference

Objective: To compare the assessment of gestational age (GA) in newborns using the Parkin Scoring and the New Ballard Scoring methods with the Ultrasound Scan Method as the Standard Reference, conducted at a peripheral military setup. Methodology: A descriptive, cross-sectional study was conducted at the Pediatrics department of Combined Military Hospital (CMH), Abbottabad from July 2019 to June 2020. A total of 102 newborns were recruited from the CMH Nursery. GA was assessed using ultrasound scan, Parkin Score (PS), and the New Ballard Score (NBS). Pearson correlation coefficient statistics were calculated to evaluate the strength of associations among the three methods. The significance level (p value) was set at 0.05. Results: The study included 47 (46.1%) females and 55 (53.9%) males. The highest GA (days) was calculated by ultrasound scan (268.76 ± 0.83), followed by PS GA (266.65 ± 1.00) and NBS (264.38 ± 1.05). There was no significant difference in GA assessment between PS and the ultrasound scan (2.32 ± 1.37 days; p = 0.208). The GA assessment between NBS and the ultrasound scan was found to be significant (4.38 ± 1.37 days; p = 0.004). However, this difference is not clinically significant. The NBS and PS GA assessment had a strong positive correlation (Pearson Coefficient = 0.80). Conclusions: The PS is a reliable method for assessing GA in newborns and is comparable to the NBS. Further research with a larger sample size should be conducted to validate these findings.