Social Environment and Vulnerability of Low Birth Weight Children: A Social-Epidemiological Perspective

PEDIATRICS ◽  
1991 ◽  
Vol 88 (5) ◽  
pp. 943-953
Author(s):  
Peggy J. MCGauhey ◽  
Barbara Starfield ◽  
Cheryl Alexander ◽  
Margaret E. Ensminger

This study examined the impact of low birth weight on children's health and assessed the influence of the social environment on various aspects of health in low birth weight and normal birth weight children. Data on 8661 children aged 2 through 11 from the 1981 Child Health Supplement of the National Health Interview Survey provided strong evidence for two major conclusions: (1) Low birth weight children in high-risk social environments are at increased for poor health outcomes compared with comparable normal birth weight children. This vulnerability was found across all age groups, suggesting that the effects of low birth weight are long-lasting. The poor health outcomes for low birth weight children in high-risk social environments were found for all seven aspects of child health status studied: excessive bed days, restricted-activity days, and school-loss days; school failure, low school-ranking, behavior problems, and maternal perception of child health status as fair/ poor. (2) The mechanism of risk was complex and differed by birth weight group. Whereas certain combinations of individual risk factors protected normal birth weight children from several adverse outcomes, none for low birth weight children were identified. However, low birth weight children in low-or moderate-risk social environments were not at greater risk for poor outcomes compared with comparable normal birth weight children. This study underscores the importance of a healthy social environment for children who are already at high risk for poor health outcomes by virtue of being low birth weight.

2020 ◽  
Vol In Press (In Press) ◽  
Author(s):  
Najmeh Maharlouei ◽  
Sogand Farhangian ◽  
Hadi Raeisi Shahraki ◽  
Abbas Rezaianzadeh ◽  
Kamran Bagheri Lankarani

Background: Low birth weight (LBW < 2500 g) is one of the most serious problems in today’s world. It is also a predictor for mortality and stunting. Objectives: This study aimed to compare the growth and development at the age of 60 months between children born with low and normal birth weight in Shiraz, Iran. Methods: This study is part of the Fars birth cohort (FBC) study with the data of children who were born in 2011. We called mothers and asked them to bring their children to the FBC clinic for further evaluation. We also determined the level of development at the age of 60 months for each child by using the Ages and Stages questionnaire (ASQ) for the children. Results: Of the children, 304 (51.4%) were girls. Most of them had normal birth weight (93.2%), had exclusive breastfeeding for five to six months (79.9%), and did not have any chronic diseases (77.8%). Growth indices at the age of 60 months were significantly higher in children with normal birth weight than in their LBW peers (P < 0.001). However, we found no significant difference in children’s development at the age of 60 months between normal and low birth weight children. Conclusions: Although growth indices of children at the age of 60 months were higher in children with normal birth weight, we found no significant difference in children’s development at the age of 60 months between normal and low birth weight children.


2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Faisal Abbas ◽  
Ramesh Kumar ◽  
Tahir Mahmood ◽  
Ratana Somrongthong

AbstractLow Birth Weight (LBW) is considered as a major public health issue and leading cause of neonatal death. Almost one in four newborns are reported as underweight in Pakistan. Children born with low birth weight are highly vulnerable to develop diseases and death and/or remain undernourished (i.e., stunted and wasted). This study determines the LBW newborns are more prone to develop stunting and wasting in province of Sindh, Pakistan. Moreover, regression-based estimation of the impact of LBW on the child health outcomes of under five years of age, may be prone to selection bias because of the nature of non-experimental data set, thus, propensity score matching methods are used in this study. Data for this study was used from Multiple Indicators Cluster Survey (MICS-2014). MICS is a two-stage, stratified cluster sampling household level data covering urban and rural areas and consists of 19,500 households from five administrative divisions and 28 districts of Sindh province of Pakistan. The total sample size of children less than five years of age after cleaning the data are 7781, of which 2095 are LBW having birth weight categorized as “smaller than average and very small” and 5686 are normal birth weight (NBW) having birth weight very large, larger than average, and average. This study employed propensity score matching (PSM) regression methods to understand whether the children born as low birth weight are more prone to stunting and wasting and/or both. In province of Sindh, moderate wasting children under five years were 21%, severe wasting 6% and both wasting and stunting 10%. The propensity score results are shown significant in all groups. Specifically, all four types of PSM methods confirm a significant difference in the potential outcome variables—meaning that a child born with LBW has a significant adverse effect on the potential child health outcome variables (stunting, wasting and both). Thus, the propensity score matching findings confirm a significant and adverse effect of LBW on potential health outcomes of under five children. Similarly, low birth weight children are significantly more likely to be moderately wasted (OR = 1.5, CI = 1.3–1.6) and severely wasted (OR = 1.6, CI = 1.3–2.0) and both (stunted and wasted, OR = 2.0, CI = 1.7–2.3) as compared to children with normal birth weight. Male children, if born with low birth weight, are significantly more likely to be moderately wasted (OR = 1.3, CI = 1.1–1.5) and both (wasted and stunted, OR = 1.3, CI = 1.1–1.5) than girls. This large data analysis finding proved that the LBW newborns are on higher risk to develop wasting and stunting in Pakistan.


2021 ◽  
pp. 097321792199140
Author(s):  
Rimjhim Sonowal ◽  
Anamika Jain ◽  
V. Bhargava ◽  
H.D. Khanna ◽  
Ashok Kumar

Objective: The objective of this study was to evaluate the serum levels of various antioxidants, namely, vitamin A and E, superoxide dismutase (SOD), catalase, and glutathione peroxidase (GPx) in the cord blood of term low birth weight (LBW) neonates who required delivery room resuscitation (DRR). Materials and Methods: This case control study included 37 term LBW neonates who needed DRR as cases and 44 term neonates as controls (15 term LBW and 29 term normal birth weight) who did not require resuscitation at birth. Neonates suffering from major congenital malformations, infection, or hemolytic disease were excluded. Standard methods were used to measure the levels of vitamin A, vitamin E, SOD, catalase, and GPx levels in the cord blood. Results: Vitamin A and E levels were significantly low in cases compared to term LBW controls as well as term normal birth weight controls. Levels of SOD, GPx, and catalase were comparable in different study groups. Conclusion: Our study shows that term LBW neonates requiring DRR had significantly low levels of vitamin A and E in their cord blood. This might compromise their ability to tolerate oxidative stress during DRR.


PEDIATRICS ◽  
1967 ◽  
Vol 40 (3) ◽  
pp. 334-344
Author(s):  
Victor D. Menashe ◽  
Harold T. Osterud ◽  
Herbert E. Griswold

Over one half of the deaths from all congenital malformations were due to congenital cardiovascular disease. There were 496 individuals who died of congenital cardiovascular disease in Oregon during 1957 thru 1961, and three fourths of the deaths occurred in infants under 1 year of age. More males were affected by congenital cardiovascular disease than females, but, when congenital cardiovascular disease was present, the length of survival, as measured by life span, did not differ by sex. One out of every four infants dying of congenital cardiovascular disease was of low birth weight; of these, 60% were over 37 weeks' gestation. However, there was no difference in the life span of low birth weight and normal birth weight infants who died with congenital cardiovascular disease. This would imply that the significant factor of death in these infants was the cardiac malformation rather than the low birth weight. One out of every three infants who died with congenital cardiovascular disease had malformations of other systems. Fewer deaths than expected were identified among first born. Fetal deaths were noted more frequently in the population of mothers of children with congenital heart disease than in the overall population. The parental age in this group was significantly higher than in the general population and death rates of infants with congenital cardiovascular disease increased with advancing parental age. Thirty-two percent of the infants who died with congenital cardiovascular disease had single lesions. Early diagnosis and treatment is to be stressed if mortality is to be reduced.


2015 ◽  
Vol 55 (3) ◽  
pp. 158
Author(s):  
Nurul Komariah

Background Low birth weight (LBW) has long been used as an indicator of public health. Low birth weight is not a proxy for any dimension of other maternal or perinatal health outcomes. Low birth weight infants require special care, and have more chronic conditions, learning delays, and attention deficit hyperactivity disorders compared to infants of normal birth weight (NBW). Social competence is viewed as a primary component of healthy function and development and is an important predictor of academic and financial success.Objective To examine social competence of children aged 3-5 years born with low birth weight.Methods This cross-sectional study was undertaken in Palembang in 2012. Subjects consisted of children aged 3-5 years attended a preschool in the Seberang Ulu I District, Palembang, and were divided into two groups: low birth weight (LBW) and normal birth weight (NBW). Social competence was assessed by observation and Interaction Rating Scale (IRS) and Parenting Style questionnaire (PSQ). Chi-square analysis was used to compare social competence between the two groups. Multivariate regression logistic analysis was used to assess for the dominant factors that may affect a child’s social competence.Results Low birth weight children aged 3 to 5 years had a 1.435 times higher risk of low social competence compared to normal birth weight children of similar age. (RP 1.435; 95%CI 1.372 to 13.507; P=0.019). Multivariate regression logistic analysis revealed that parenting style was a dominant factor affecting social competence.Conclusion Social competence in 3 to 5-year-old children born with low birth weight is lower compared to those with normal birth weight.


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