In-home Prenatal Nutrition Intervention Increased Dietary Iron Intakes and Reduced Low Birthweight in Low-Income African-American Women

Abstract

Low birthweight (LBW), defined as an infant weighing less than 2,500 grams ( (1) Institute of Medicine; Committee on Nutritional Status During Pregnancy and Lactation. Nutrition During Pregnancy. National Academy Press, Washington, DC1990 Google Scholar ), is a major determinant of infant mortality and contributes to infant and childhood morbidity and increased healthcare costs ( (2) Orr S.T. James S.A. Miller C.A. Barakat B. Kaikoku N. Pupkin M. Engstom K. Huggins G. Psychosocial stressors and low birthweight in an urban population. Am J Prev Med. 1996; 12: 459-466 PubMed Google Scholar , (3) Sable M.R. Herman A.A. The relationship between prenatal health behavior advice and low birth weight. Public Health Rep. 1997; 112: 332-339 PubMed Google Scholar , (4) Lewit EM, Baker LS, Corman H, Shiono PH. The direct cost of low birth weight. Available at: http://www.futureofchildren.org/LBW/04LBWLEW.htm. Accessed November 1, 2000. Google Scholar ). LBW occurs due to preterm delivery (length of gestation less than 37 weeks), growth retardation, or both ( (2) Orr S.T. James S.A. Miller C.A. Barakat B. Kaikoku N. Pupkin M. Engstom K. Huggins G. Psychosocial stressors and low birthweight in an urban population. Am J Prev Med. 1996; 12: 459-466 PubMed Google Scholar ). In the United States, higher rates of LBW occur in urban areas with high concentrations of low-income ethnic minorities ( (5) Zambrana R.E. Dunkel-Schetter C. Collins N.L. Scrimshaw S.C. Mediators of ethnic-associated differences in infant birth weight. J Urban Health: Bull NY Acad Med. 1999; 76: 102-116 PubMed Google Scholar ). Results of the 1997 Pediatric Nutrition Surveillance indicate that the rate of LBW in the United States was 13% for African-American infants, and 8% for whites ( (6) Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Pediatric Nutrition Surveillance 1997 full report. US Dept of Health and Human Services, Atlanta, Ga1998 Google Scholar ). Healthy People 2010 ( (7) Healthy People 2010-Conference Edition, Maternal, Infant and Child Health. Available at: Accessed http://www.health.gov/healthypeople/Document/HTML/Volume2Date: 2000 Google Scholar ) outlines an overarching goal to eliminate health disparities among different segments of the population, including differences that occur by race or ethnicity.