INVESTIGATE THE PREVALENCE OF LOW BIRTH WEIGHT IN IRANIAN TERM NEWBORNS IN 2014

Background and Aim: The World Health Organization (WHO) has referred to low birth weight as one of the malnutrition criteria. Research demonstrates that there is a correlation between malnutrition of infants and the incidence of certain diseases in childhood and adulthood. Hence, evaluating the prevalence of low birth weight is important. This study was conducted with the aim to examine the prevalence of low birth weight in Iranian term newborns in 2014. Methods: The birth weight and age of all Iranian newborn babies were extracted from the Ministry of Health system in 2014. Microsoft Access Software was used as the database. All infants were considered as term infants for 37 to 41 weeks. The weight of the newborns was compared with the Fenton growth curve in each week and if the weight of the infant was less than the percentile 3, it was considered as low birth weight. Results: The total number of newborn babies was 1764438, of which 92% (N = 1631075) term newborns, 7.5% (N = 132832) pre-term newborns and the rest were post-term newborns respectively. 792250 newborns equivalent to 44% were girl term newborns and the rest of the term newborns were boys. The prevalence of low birth weight in the whole population 0.092%, in girls 0.094% and in boy term newborns 0.091% was respectively.Conclusion: The prevalence of low birth weight in the whole population was 0.092% that these infants are likely to be at increased risk of developing disease during adulthood.

Keywords:

Newborns , Prevalence , Term , Low Birth Weight , Iran