RISK-FACTORS FOR LOW-BIRTH-WEIGHT IN JAPANESE INFANTS

The purpose of our study was to identify risk factors for low birthwei ght (LBW; birthweight < 2500 g) in Japanese infants. The data was coll ected from questionnaires completed by the parents of 23132 infants wh o underwent a standardized well baby cheek-up for 1-month-old infants, conducted by the Fukuoka City Medical Association from 1987 to 1995. The following eight factors and their second-order interaction terms w ere examined as potential risk factors for LBW: maternal age al delive ry, history of live-born LBW infant, history of abortion in previous p regnancies, maternal smoking, coffee and alcohol consumption during pr egnancy, prenatal training and live birth order, The results of multip le logistic regression analysis showed that the following three factor s and one interaction term significantly contributed to LBW: history o f live born LBW infant, maternal smoking, live birth order and the int eraction between maternal smoking and live birth order, The smoker-rel ated risk for LBW was quite different in each of the three groups stra tified by live birth order, Efforts should be made, for example, to in crease the accessibility of early, high-quality prenatal care for the high-risk groups with previous LBW babies and to implement smoking int ervention, ranging from specific medical procedures to broad-scale pub lic health and health-related educational programs in schools.