Open AccessPredictors of Birthweight in Healthy Women Attending A Rural Antenatal Clinic
Author(s) -
M. S. L. Mathule,
Timothy J. Kennedy,
George A. Gates,
Maria T. Spicer
Publication year - 2005
Publication title -
african journal of food, agriculture, nutrition and development
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.22
H-Index - 11
eISSN - 1684-5374
pISSN - 1684-5358
DOI - 10.18697/ajfand.8.1125
Subject(s) - medicine , attendance , birth weight , demography , economic shortage , season of birth , pediatrics , obstetrics , pregnancy , linguistics , philosophy , genetics , psychiatry , sociology , government (linguistics) , economics , biology , economic growth
Birthweight is important to infant survival and the later health of a child. To promote optimum birthweight, in an environment that is vulnerable to seasonal food shortages, it is important to understand the relationship between birthweight and exposure to the hungry season. The objective of this study was to determine seasonal effects on birthweight and examined the ability of maternal and seasonal variables to predict birthweight in this cohort. The study was conducted at Scott Hospital-Morija which services rural communities in Lesotho. Women with normal healthy pregnancies without complications, with a clinic attendance of five or more times, who had full term singleton infants were included. Information including infant’s date of birth, infant’s birthweight and length, monthly maternal weights, and date of first and last antenatal visit were systematically and retrospectively extracted from 477 Antenatal Clinic (ANC) records covering a period of three years from May 1998 to April 2001. There were 252 male infants with mean birthweight of 3169g ± 420 and 225 female infants with mean birthweight of 3297g ± 436. A seasonal pattern was observed with a significant difference (p<0.05) between the mean birthweights in the December and January hungry season (3100g ± 70) and the mean birthweights in March, April, August and September (3310g ± 70). First trimester exposure to the hungry season had a tendency to correlate with birthweight (p<0.10). Third trimester exposure to the hungry season had a significant negative (r = - 0.106, p<0.05) relationship with birthweight. The best predictors of birthweight were maternal parity (p=0.0001), last pregnancy weight (p=0.0001) and exposure to the hungry season in the third trimester (p=0.022) with the first trimester (p=0.056) of pregnancy approaching significance. Thus, length of exposure to the hungry season is important in determining pregnancy outcomes. The regression model including last pregnancy weight, maternal parity and exposure to the hungry season in the third trimester explained 12.2% of the variance in birth weight (p=0.017). Increased surveillance of primigravid women, promoting pregnancy weight gain for optimal infant weight at term and supplementation during the hungry season are recommended.