Babies born to mothers from the Philippines are more likely to be wrongly labeled as underweight compared with other babies, an Ontario study suggests.

When newborns are deemed lower weight, they may be considered at higher risk of developmental issues and doctors may follow them more closely compared with heavier babies the same age.

Health care workers should keep in mind weight differences for infants of mothers born in the Philippines, doctors in Toronto say. (Romeo Ranoco/Reuters)

In the November online issue of the Journal of Obstetrics and Gynecology Canada, Dr. Joel Ray of St. Michael's Hospital in Toronto and his co-authors concluded about nine in every 100 baby boys of mothers from the Philippines were misclassified as being small for gestational age using conventional weight curves.

For girls, the risk was about seven per cent.

The researchers checked the records of 548,418 single births in Ontario between 2002 and 2007, including more than 15,000 babies born to mothers from the Philippines.

"Infants of mothers born in the Philippines weigh significantly less than those of Canadian-born women or mothers emigrating from other East Asian countries," the study's authors concluded. "Those who use birth weight curves should consider these differences."

The investigators took maternal age and the number of times a woman has given birth into account in their analysis.

Earlier research has indicated that Filipino children have the highest rates of being both underweight and of small stature compared with other East Asians and Pacific Island group, the researchers added.

East Asians are the fastest-growing immigrant group in Canada.

The research team previously published birthweight curves for newborns of seven different maternal ancestries.