Acta Biomedica Scientia

ESTABLISHING OPTIMAL GESTATIONAL WEIGHT GAIN RANGES: A QUANTITATIVE APPROACH USING NONINFERIORITY MARGINS

Dr Sudipta Paul

Gestational Weight Gain, Noninferiority Margins, Pregnancy Outcomes, Maternal Health, Bmi, Confidence Intervals, Public Health Guidelines, Systematic Thresholds, Composite Outcomes

This study presents a quantitative approach for determining optimal gestational weight gain ranges using noninferiority margins, providing a systematic alternative to conventional visual interpretation methods. Conducted at the Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology at Gouri Devi Institute of Medical Sciences and Hospital, India, the analysis involved 150 participants from 2018 to 2019. Noninferiority margins of 10% and 20% were selected to define acceptable levels of increased risk, enabling consistent and reproducible identification of weight gain thresholds across normal-weight and overweight women. Findings indicate that while a 20% margin yields similar ranges for normal-weight women, it allows a broader range for overweight women, reflecting distinct risk profiles across BMI groups. Utilizing a composite outcome based on five health indicators linked to gestational weight gain, this study balances the influence of various adverse outcomes. Statistical precision, as influenced by sample size, plays a critical role in determining guideline confidence intervals, with smaller studies necessitating conservative ranges to avoid exceeding noninferiority margins. The proposed method offers a structured framework that can extend to other public health areas, such as nutrition or pediatric weight standards. Supplementary data allows exploration of alternative noninferiority margins, supporting flexible guideline application. This approach underscores the importance of engaging clinicians, researchers, and policy makers in establishing informed pregnancy weight gain recommendations. Overall, these findings offer a scalable methodology to enhance the objectivity and reliability of public health guidelines