Seyyed Mostafa Nachvak, Hossein Jabbari, Alireza Ostadrahimi, Kurosh Djafarian,
Volume 1, Issue 1 (7-2012)
Abstract
Introduction: The aim of this study was to investigate weight gain during pregnancy and birth weight in rural regions of Tabriz, a province in the northwest of Iran.
Materials & Methods: A cross-sectional study was conducted using routinely collected data of pregnant mothers from rural health centers. Eight health centers were randomly selected in rural areas of Tabriz. Totally, 874 women aged 24.86±5.08 years with singleton term that regularly attended health centers for prenatal care and delivered between 2002 and 2007 entered the study. The data on pre-pregnancy weight, height, total weight gain during pregnancy, mother’s age, parity, newborn's birth weight, mother’s education and working status were extracted from the health records. The women were categorized based on their pre-pregnancy body mass index (BMI) as underweight, normal weight, overweight and obese. Pregnancy weight gain was compared with new (2009) and old (1990) recommendations of Institute of Medicine (IOM).
Results: 86.1% of underweight and 77.7% of normal weight pregnant women gained weight during their pregnancy below the lower limits of recommended ranges. While weight gain in none of the underweight pregnant women was more than the new IOM recommendations, 1.1% of normal weight, 17.8% of overweight and 36.4% of obese women gained weight more than the upper limits of the new IOM recommendations.
Conclusion: The results of this study indicate that according to IOM guidelines, most of Iranian rural pregnant women gain weight during pregnancy less than minimum recommendations.
Ali Dehghani, Marzieh Sobhani, Mahmoud Nouri Shadkam, Hossein Falahzadeh, Masoud Mohammadi, Aboalfazl Sharifi,
Volume 7, Issue 2 (4-2018)
Abstract
Introduction: One of the most valuable indicators determining the health status of a community is the birth weight of infants. Thus, the purpose of this study was to investigate risk factors affecting low-birth-weight infants born to mothers visiting community health centers in the city of Yazd in Iran.
Methods: The present study was a retrospective cohort research on 280 mothers visiting to community health centers in two groups of mothers with infants weighing less than 2500 grams (case) and those with babies weighing more than 2500 grams (control). The data were also collected by interviewing mothers and reviewing the information inserted in their health records. Such data were then entered into the SPSS software (Version 19) and analyzed through Chi-square test, independent t-test, as well as logistic regression analysis.
Results: The mean and the standard deviation of birth weight in the case group were 2171.4 ± 339.85 grams and they were equal to 3222.5±390.78 grams in the control group. Besides, the results of the analysis revealed that maternal education (P= 0.05), type of delivery (P= 0.02), birth order (P= 0.02), maternal occupation (P= 0.03), pregnancy-induced hypertension (P= 0.008), and gestational age (P= 0.000) were correlated with low-birth-weight infants.
Conclusion: Considering that low birth weight was related to factors that could be controllable in most circumstances, measures such as training mothers, promoting quality of prenatal care, and planning for childbearing among mothers are recommended.
