50 LBWIs (BW ≤ 2500g) IN A KENYAN RURAL HOSPITAL

Abstract

During their post at the Department of Obstetrics and Gynaecology at Consolata Hospital NKUBU, a rural hospital in Meru District, 230km NE higldands from Nairobi, Kenya, two members of our Department collected data, through a card system, on delivered women and their babies, from Jan 1987 to Dec 1988. The total number of deliveries was 10861. The prevalence of LBWIs (bw ≤ 2500g) was 11.5% of the total population (9.5% SGA term and 2% preterm infants). LBWIs (n-1240) significantly differed from NBWIs (bw > 2500g; n=9621) for maternal age, purity, fetal mortality rate, presence of major malformations (p < 0.0001), but not for previous abortions, sex or dystocic deliveries. Preterm LBW infants differed from term SGA infants for fetal mortality rate and multiparity (p<0.01), but not for maternal age, purity, previous abortions, dystocic deliveries, sex, major malformations anil provenance area (data on provenance area were available only for LBWIs). The single most important factor in the prediction of bw (a stepwise multiple regression was computed in which maternal age, parity, previous abortion, sex and major malformations were entered),. was maternal age (r2=.027). A highly significant relationship was found between maternal age and weight, with younger and older mother delivering the lightest babies, which was best expressed by a second order polynomial regression (r=.20, p < 0.0001). Parity was strictly associated with maternal age and it was not associated with bw when the independent variable ‘maternal age’ was controlled.