A research report submitted to the Faculty of Health Sciences Witwatersrand University, Johannesburg in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Medicine in Family Medicine
Johannesburg, South Africa
2017 / Background: Low birth weight (LBW) is an important risk factor for infant developmental problems, morbidity and mortality. Low birth weight babies are twenty times more likely to die during the neonatal period than their normal weight counterparts. Although risk factors for low birth weight vary from one community to another, maternal risk factors for low birth weight in the South Rand Hospital (Johannesburg, Gauteng) catchment area have not been investigated. The objective of this study was to determine maternal risk factors for low birth weight in South Rand Hospital, Johannesburg.
Method: This 1: 1 matched case-control study was conducted on a total of 480 mothers who delivered babies at South Rand Hospital between 1 January 2013 and 31 December 2014. The cases were 240 mothers who delivered singleton term live LBW babies. They were matched with an equal number of controls.
Results: Conditional logistic regression showed that, no anaemia in the third trimester (OR=0.54, 95% CI= 0.30-0.99), immigration status (OR= 0.46, 95% CI= 0.25- 0.85) and four or more antenatal care clinic attendance (OR=0.36, 95% C.I= 0.12- 0.76) were protective factors, while smoking during pregnancy (OR= 8.69, 95% CI= 2.70-28.35) predisposes to delivering a LBW baby.
Conclusion: The results showed that smoking during pregnancy is a risk factor for LBW, while maternal third-trimester haemoglobin level of 11g/dl or more, immigrant status, and more than three ANC visits were protective factors for delivering LBW baby. / MT2017
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:netd.ac.za/oai:union.ndltd.org:wits/oai:wiredspace.wits.ac.za:10539/23257 |
| Date | January 2017 |
| Creators | Abdulsalam, Abdulrauf |
| Source Sets | South African National ETD Portal |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Thesis |
| Format | application/pdf |
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