Associeted factors to low birthweight: a retrospective study

Abstract

26 variables concerning pre-conceptional, pregnancy, delivery and newborn's aspects related to 804 single consecutive deliveries occurring at the Obstetrics Unit of the College of Medicai Sciences, UNICAMP, have been studied retrospectively, between July, 1978 and March, 1979. This study had searched for the relationship between these variables and the event — delivery of a newborn weighing less than 2500 g. This event has occurred at a rate of 17,5%; the prematurity rate was 12,8% and the frequency of low birthweight among infants born at term was 7,7%.

Those variables which were consistently related to low birthweight infants were also studied in their influence over the prematurity rate and over the intra uterine growth retardation.
The influence of each variable over the genesis of low birthweight is discussed within present knowledge, always looking for the socioeconomic and health realities among which the studied population is inserted.