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The article reports on obstetrics which focuses on identification of pregnancies at risk of adverse outcomes to plan targeted intervention. Topics discussed include prognostic models provide individualized judge risk for clinically important outcomes in diseased patients, prediction model development for adverse outcomes in women with pre-eclampsia pose challenges in obstetrics and methods could address bias from treatment paradox such as standardization of treatment and predictor substitution.

Background: Health outcomes throughout the life course have been linked to fetal growth restriction and low birthweight. A variety of measures exist to define low birthweight, with a lack of consensus regarding which predict adverse outcome.Objectives: To evaluate the relationship between birthweight standards and childhood and adult outcomes in term-born infants (≥37 weeks' gestation).Search Strategy: MEDLINE (1966-January 2011), EMBASE (1980-January 2011), and the Cochrane Library (2011:1) and MEDION were included.Selection Criteria: Studies comprising live term-born infants (gestation ≥37 completed weeks), with weight or other anthropometric measurements recorded at birth along with childhood and adult outcomes.Data Collection and Analysis: Data were extracted to populate 2 × 2 tables relating birthweight standard with outcome, and meta-analysis was performed where possible.Main Results: Fifty-nine articles (2 600 383 individuals) were selected. There was no significant relationship between birthweight <2.5 kg (odds ratio [OR] 0.98, 95% confidence intervals [CI] 0.87-1.10) and composite measure of childhood morbidity. Weight <10th centile on the population nomogram showed a small association (OR 1.49, 95% CI 1.02-2.19) for the same outcome. There was no significant association between either of the above measures and adult morbidity. The relationship between other measures and individual outcomes varied.Author's Conclusions: The association between low birthweight, by any definition, and childhood and adult morbidity was inconsistent. None of the current standards of low birthweight was a good predictor of adverse outcome. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]