Fetal Birth Weight Prediction in the Third Trimester: Retrospective Cohort Study and Development of an Ensemble Model

Abstract BackgroundAccurate third-trimester birth weight prediction is vital for reducing adverse outcomes, and machine learning (ML) offers superior precision over traditional ultrasound methods. ObjectiveThis study aims to develop an ML model on the basis of clin...

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Main Authors: Jing Gao, Xu Jie, Yujun Yao, Jingdong Xue, Lei Chen, Ruiyao Chen, Jiayuan Chen, Weiwei Cheng
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: JMIR Publications 2025-03-01
Series:JMIR Pediatrics and Parenting
Online Access:https://pediatrics.jmir.org/2025/1/e59377
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author Jing Gao
Xu Jie
Yujun Yao
Jingdong Xue
Lei Chen
Ruiyao Chen
Jiayuan Chen
Weiwei Cheng
author_facet Jing Gao
Xu Jie
Yujun Yao
Jingdong Xue
Lei Chen
Ruiyao Chen
Jiayuan Chen
Weiwei Cheng
author_sort Jing Gao
collection DOAJ
description Abstract BackgroundAccurate third-trimester birth weight prediction is vital for reducing adverse outcomes, and machine learning (ML) offers superior precision over traditional ultrasound methods. ObjectiveThis study aims to develop an ML model on the basis of clinical big data for accurate prediction of birth weight in the third trimester of pregnancy, which can help reduce adverse maternal and fetal outcomes. MethodsFrom January 1, 2018 to December 31, 2019, a retrospective cohort study involving 16,655 singleton live births without congenital anomalies (>28 weeks of gestation) was conducted in a tertiary first-class hospital in Shanghai. The initial set of data was divided into a train set for algorithm development and a test set on which the algorithm was divided in a ratio of 4:1. We extracted maternal and neonatal delivery outcomes, as well as parental demographics, obstetric clinical data, and sonographic fetal biometry, from electronic medical records. A total of 5 basic ML algorithms, including Ridge, SVM, Random Forest, extreme gradient boosting (XGBoost), and Multi-Layer Perceptron, were used to develop the prediction model, which was then averaged into an ensemble learning model. The models were compared using accuracy, mean squared error, root mean squared error, and mean absolute error. International Peace Maternity and Child Health Hospital's Research Ethics Committee granted ethical approval for the usage of patient information (GKLW2021-20). ResultsTrain and test sets contained a total of 13,324 and 3331 cases, respectively. From a total of 59 variables, we selected 17 variables that were readily available for the “few feature model,” which achieved high predictive power with an accuracy of 81% and significantly exceeded ultrasound formula methods. In addition, our model maintained superior performance for low birth weight and macrosomic fetal populations. ConclusionsOur research investigated an innovative artificial intelligence model for predicting fetal birth weight and maximizing health care resource use. In the era of big data, our model improves maternal and fetal outcomes and promotes precision medicine.
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spelling doaj-art-54fad2c867a14fbe9330c17c63e1a0302025-08-20T03:01:49ZengJMIR PublicationsJMIR Pediatrics and Parenting2561-67222025-03-018e59377e5937710.2196/59377Fetal Birth Weight Prediction in the Third Trimester: Retrospective Cohort Study and Development of an Ensemble ModelJing Gaohttp://orcid.org/0000-0003-4265-8276Xu Jiehttp://orcid.org/0000-0001-9233-4363Yujun Yaohttp://orcid.org/0000-0003-3526-341XJingdong Xuehttp://orcid.org/0000-0001-8297-0948Lei Chenhttp://orcid.org/0009-0001-0188-0498Ruiyao Chenhttp://orcid.org/0000-0002-2011-5556Jiayuan Chenhttp://orcid.org/0000-0003-3122-6726Weiwei Chenghttp://orcid.org/0000-0002-0805-8296 Abstract BackgroundAccurate third-trimester birth weight prediction is vital for reducing adverse outcomes, and machine learning (ML) offers superior precision over traditional ultrasound methods. ObjectiveThis study aims to develop an ML model on the basis of clinical big data for accurate prediction of birth weight in the third trimester of pregnancy, which can help reduce adverse maternal and fetal outcomes. MethodsFrom January 1, 2018 to December 31, 2019, a retrospective cohort study involving 16,655 singleton live births without congenital anomalies (>28 weeks of gestation) was conducted in a tertiary first-class hospital in Shanghai. The initial set of data was divided into a train set for algorithm development and a test set on which the algorithm was divided in a ratio of 4:1. We extracted maternal and neonatal delivery outcomes, as well as parental demographics, obstetric clinical data, and sonographic fetal biometry, from electronic medical records. A total of 5 basic ML algorithms, including Ridge, SVM, Random Forest, extreme gradient boosting (XGBoost), and Multi-Layer Perceptron, were used to develop the prediction model, which was then averaged into an ensemble learning model. The models were compared using accuracy, mean squared error, root mean squared error, and mean absolute error. International Peace Maternity and Child Health Hospital's Research Ethics Committee granted ethical approval for the usage of patient information (GKLW2021-20). ResultsTrain and test sets contained a total of 13,324 and 3331 cases, respectively. From a total of 59 variables, we selected 17 variables that were readily available for the “few feature model,” which achieved high predictive power with an accuracy of 81% and significantly exceeded ultrasound formula methods. In addition, our model maintained superior performance for low birth weight and macrosomic fetal populations. ConclusionsOur research investigated an innovative artificial intelligence model for predicting fetal birth weight and maximizing health care resource use. In the era of big data, our model improves maternal and fetal outcomes and promotes precision medicine.https://pediatrics.jmir.org/2025/1/e59377
spellingShingle Jing Gao
Xu Jie
Yujun Yao
Jingdong Xue
Lei Chen
Ruiyao Chen
Jiayuan Chen
Weiwei Cheng
Fetal Birth Weight Prediction in the Third Trimester: Retrospective Cohort Study and Development of an Ensemble Model
JMIR Pediatrics and Parenting
title Fetal Birth Weight Prediction in the Third Trimester: Retrospective Cohort Study and Development of an Ensemble Model
title_full Fetal Birth Weight Prediction in the Third Trimester: Retrospective Cohort Study and Development of an Ensemble Model
title_fullStr Fetal Birth Weight Prediction in the Third Trimester: Retrospective Cohort Study and Development of an Ensemble Model
title_full_unstemmed Fetal Birth Weight Prediction in the Third Trimester: Retrospective Cohort Study and Development of an Ensemble Model
title_short Fetal Birth Weight Prediction in the Third Trimester: Retrospective Cohort Study and Development of an Ensemble Model
title_sort fetal birth weight prediction in the third trimester retrospective cohort study and development of an ensemble model
url https://pediatrics.jmir.org/2025/1/e59377
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