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 <18.5 kg/m2 (OR=1.48) and presence of any morbid condition during current pregnancy (OR=1.39). After MLR only 3 maternal factors i.e. place of residence (rural) (AOR=2.11), unfavourable outcome of previous pregnancy (AOR=1.96) and presence of any morbid condition during current pregnancy (AOR=1.44) were found to be associated with LBW. Conclusion: Women residing in rural areas, women with unfavourable outcome of previous pregnancy and women with any morbid condition during present pregnancy need special attention as these conditions were found to be significantly associated with LBW