Ponderal Index: An Important Anthropometric Indicator for Physical Growth

Abstract

The Ponderal Index (PI) is an essential measure to study physical growth of fetus, infants, newborn babies, adolescents, and adults. Lower PI is found among the malnourish infants and newborn babies and higher in obese ones. PI is also applied in maternity treatment to detect impaired fetal growth. Neonatal PI is essential to identify the effects of gestation age, sex, and maternal parity. In this study aspects of Ponderal Index (PI) are discussed to increase the measurement area for the reduction of risk factors of the infants and children morbidity and mortality.