A CASE CONTROL STUDY OF RISK FACTORS FOR LOW BIRTH WEIGHT IN NAGPUR CITY OF MAHARASHTRA

Background: Birth weight is one of the most important determinants of the chance of the newborn to survive & to experience healthy growth & development. So the present case control study was done to find some risk factors associated with low birth weight (LBW) among women delivering at a government medical college of Central India. Material and Methods: The study was conducted on 860 women who came for their delivery at Medical College & Hospital of Nagpur in between June 2007 to December 2009. This case-control study had equal number of cases & controls matched for maternal age, parity & completed weeks of gestational age at the time of birth by 1:1 paired matching. Results: out of 430, 280 (65.12%) matched pairs of mothers were in age group 20-24 years, 261 (60.70%) were primipara and 112 (26.05%) were delivered at 39 completed weeks of gestation. Some maternal factors which were found to be significantly associated with LBW were unfavourable outcome of previous pregnancy (OR=2.47), place of residence (rural) (OR=2.06), height <145 cms (OR=1.91), weight <40 kgs (OR=1.87), birth interval of <24 months (OR=1.81), WHPI ≤100 (OR=1.77), Hb level <11 gram% (OR=1.59), BMI