No correlation between maternal shoe size and infant birth weight

The objective of this cross-sectional study of 111 consecutive patients admitted to the maternity care unit of a small community hospital in the US was to determine whether maternal pre-pregnancy shoe size can be used to reliably predict infant birth weight. Data collected included pre-pregnancy height, maternal weight, maternal shoe size, maternal age, gravidity, parity, ethnicity, and method of delivery. Infant birth weight was recorded within the first 2 hours of life.

They found that there was no correlation between maternal shoe size and birth weight (r = 0.01; P = NS). There was no correlation between shoe size and birth weight when corrected for parity and ethnicity.

The researchers concluded: “There is no correlation between maternal shoe and infant birth weight. This anthropometric measure should not be used to estimate infant birth weight.”

The Journal of the American Board of Family Medicine 19:426-428 July/August 2006. Maternal Shoe Size and Infant Birth Weight: Correlation or Fiction?, Mark B. Stephens, MD, MS, Debra A. Manning, MD, Amy Arnold-Canuso and David M. Haas, MD.