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Relationship of hemoglobin, gestational age, intergestational interval, and body mass index with low birth weight

Abstract:

Introduction: Identifying maternal factors that may be related to low birth weight is important to develop prevention strategies and improve neonatal health outcomes. Objective: The aim of the study was to identify whether hemoglobin, gestational age, intergestational interval and pregestational BMI are related to low birth weight. Methods: The study corresponded to the relational level and adopted a case-control design. It was observational, retrospective, cross-sectional and analytical. The study population consisted of 274 pregnant patients who were attended during the year 2022 at the Hospital General Docente Ambato, in Ecuador. The parametric Student's t-test for independent samples was used. Results: The results showed that the four associated variables were related to the variable of Low Birth Weight supervision. 35.4 % (N=97) of pregnant women had anemia; 36.9% (N=101) of pregnant women had short Gestational Age (less than 37 weeks of pregnancy); 32.5 % (N=89) of pregnant women had short Intergestational Interval (less than 32 weeks between the birth of one child and the start of the next pregnancy); and 61.3 % (N=168) of pregnant women had inadequate Pregestational BMI. Conclusions: The investigator's hypothesis that there are significant differences in the means of Maternal Hemoglobin, Gestational Age, Intergestational Interval and Pregestational BMI between the Low Birth Weight and Non-Low Birth Weight groups was met.