Low birth weight in a Kenyan rural hospital

This paper reports on a study carried out to determine the incidence of low birth weight in a rural hospital in Meru District, Kenya, and to identify some of the factors associated with it. This was a prospective, population- based study involving all delivered women and their babies in the Departmen t of Obstetrics and Gynecology at Nkubu Hospital, Kenya. A card system was used to record perinatal data for each mother and neonate over a period of 2 years. The incidence of low birth weight (< 2500 g) infants was 7%. Of th ese, 79.6% were term infants, small for gestational age. A multivariate log istic regression analysis showed that the risk of having an infant with low birth weight was significantly lower in the case of multiparous mothers (o dds ratio (OR) = 0.57, 95% confidence interval (CI) 0.42-0.77), and signifi cantly higher in the following cases: in mothers less than 24 years of age (< 20 years OR = 1.80, 95% CI 1.34-2.43; 20-24 years OR = 1.31, 95% CI 1.04 -1.67), in mothers who had had previous abortions (OR = 1.69, 95% CI 1.25-2 .30) and if the infant was female (OR = 1.30, 95% CI 1.12-1.53). We underli ne the importance of maternal age and parity as two independent factors whi ch should help our understanding of the pathophysiology of low birth weight in developing countries, and thus help the programming of preventive measu res designed to reduce the incidence of low birth weight.