Aim: The aim of this study was to develop new national standards for birth weight, length, head circumference, and weight for length for newborn twins based on the German perinatal survey of 2007-2011. We also assessed trends in anthropometric measurements by comparing these new percentile values with the percentile values of 1990-1994.
Material and methods: Perinatal survey data of 110,313 newborn twins from all the states of Germany collected in the years 2007-2011 were kindly provided by the AQUA Institute in Göttingen, Germany. Sex specific percentile values were calculated using cumulative frequencies. Percentile values at birth were computed for the 3rd, 10th, 25th, 50th, 75th, 90th, and 97th percentiles for 21-40 completed weeks of gestation. Percentile curves and tabulated values for the years 2007-2011 were compared with the published values of 1990-1994.
Results and discussion: The new percentile curves (2007-2011) closely resemble the previous ones (1990-1994). Small differences can nonetheless be found. For example, for birth weight the new values for the 10th percentile are a little higher.
Conclusions: We recommend using the new percentile values instead of the old ones.
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