Maternal anemia and birth weight: A prospective cohort study

PLoS One. 2019 Mar 18;14(3):e0212817. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0212817. eCollection 2019.

Abstract

Objective: To investigate the association between maternal anemia and low/insufficient birth weight.

Design: A prospective cohort study of pregnant women who underwent prenatal care at the healthcare units in a municipality of northeast Brazil together with their newborn infants was carried out. The pregnant women were classified as having anemia when the hemoglobin level was below 11 g/dl. Infants who were born full term weighing less than 2500 grams were classified as low birth weight, and those weighing between 2500 and 2999 grams were classified as insufficient weight. The occurrence of maternal anemia and its association with birth weight was verified using crude and adjusted Relative Risk (RR) estimates with their corresponding 95% confidence intervals (95%CIs).

Results: The final sample was comprised of 622 women. Maternal anemia was considered a risk factor for low/insufficient birth weight, after adjusting the effect measurement for maternal age, family income, urinary infection, parity, alcoholic beverage consumption during pregnancy and gestational body mass index: RRadjusted = 1.38 [95% CI: 1.07 to 1.77].

Conclusions: Maternal anemia was associated with low/insufficient birth weight, representing a risk factor for the gestational outcomes studied.

Publication types

  • Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

  • Adolescent
  • Adult
  • Anemia / diagnosis
  • Anemia / epidemiology*
  • Birth Weight*
  • Brazil / epidemiology
  • Female
  • Hemoglobins / analysis
  • Humans
  • Infant, Low Birth Weight*
  • Infant, Newborn
  • Middle Aged
  • Pregnancy
  • Pregnancy Complications / diagnosis
  • Pregnancy Complications / epidemiology*
  • Pregnancy Outcome
  • Prospective Studies
  • Risk Factors
  • Socioeconomic Factors
  • Young Adult

Substances

  • Hemoglobins

Grants and funding

This work was financial support from the Research Support Foundation of the State of Bahia (Fundação de Amparo à Pesquisa do Estado da Bahia-FAPESB)–PPSUS 0025/2014, Salvador, Bahia, Brazil; The National Council for Scientific and Technological Development (Conselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento Científico e Tecnológico-CNPq)–Universal 457809/2014-0, Brasília, Brazil and t his study was financed in part by the Coordination for the Improvement of Higher Education Personnel (Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior)– Brasília, Brazil, (CAPES) – Finance Code 001”. The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript.