RESULTS OF A CASE-HISTORY STUDY OF LOW-BI RTH-WEIGHT CHILDREN IN COTONOU (BENIN)

Low birth weight is a major determinant of neonatal mortality in devel oping countries, although its causative factors remain poorly known. R ecent studies from developing countries have suggested that a maternal history of induced abortion may be one of these factors, but other st udies have failed to replicate this finding, generating an unproductiv e controversy. High Prevalences of both low-birth weight infants and i nduced abortions have been reported in African countries including Ben in, but no studies are available that looked for correlations between these two factors. A study was therefore conducted on a random sample of 1177 pregnant nulli-parous women who went to one of the Cotonou mat ernity clinics in 1990 for their first prenatal visit. Data on each wo man was recorded on a standardized questionnaire. About 12% of the wom en subsequently delivered a low-birth-weight infant. Logistic regressi on analysis failed to detect any statistically significant association between a history of induced abortion and subsequent delivery of a pr emature infant (odds-ratio adjusted = 0.71, CI = 0.43-1.18). Neither w as any association found between delivery of a growth-retarded infant and presence of sequelae of an induced abortion (odds-ratio adjusted = 1.13, CI = 0.77-1.68). Maternal malnutrition and complications of pre gnancy were significantly associated with delivery of a low-birth-weig ht infant.