WEIGHT AND LENGTH AT BIRTH - THE ROLE OF MATERNAL NUTRITION

Objective. To identify determinants of weight (BW) and length at birth (BL). Material and methods. We studied 481 mother-newborn pairs in th ree Mexico City hospitals. Multiple regression models were developed t o identify statistically significant predictors of BW and BL with resp ect to a predetermined biological model. Independent variables include d were: maternal anthropometry, age, smoking habits, and civil status, parental education, obstetric history, hypertension, and neonatal cha racteristics Results. In the group with calf circumference (CC), heigh t and head circumference below the median BW was 133, 92 and 96g lower (+/- 35 standard error -SE-, p<0.01) than the group above the median, adjusting for socioeconomic, obstetric history, and neonatal characte ristics (NC). In the group below the median CC or height, BL was 5.8 o r 6.2 mm (+/-1.9 mm SE, p<0.01) respectivily, adjusting for obstetric history and NC. Conclusions. Results suggest that maternal anthropomet ry is the most important predictor of birth size and that predictors f or BW and BL differ.