Abstract:
Objective of this study was to estimate the influence of variation in
anthropometric measurements of pregnant mothers on the birth weight (BW)
and length of the newborns from selected Medical Officers of Health (MOH)
Divisions of Jaffna District. In this study, 420 mothers were selected in six
MOH divisions in Jaffna District. Weight and height of the pregnant mothers
were taken in antenatal clinics at third trimester of gestation while that of the
newborns was collected immediately after the birth. Ethical approval was
obtained from ethics review committee, Faculty of Medicine, University of
Jaffna, Sri Lanka. Data was analyzed using SPSS version 16 software.
Among the 420 newborns, 212 were females (50.5%). Mean BW of the
newborn was 3027.51(±431.61) g, ranging from 1500.0 to 4550.0 g and the
mean length was 50.9 (±2.1) cm, ranging from 44.0 to 57.0 cm. Among the
newborns, low, normal and high birth weights were 11.4 (n=48), 88.3
(n=371) and 0.3 % (n=1) respectively. Mean weight and heights of pregnant
mothers were 63.02 (±11.56) kg and 154.39 (±6.00) cm respectively and the
mean BMI was 26.42 (±4.42) kg/m2
. Among the pregnant mothers, the rate
of under, normal and obese/overweight were 1.0 (n=4), 22.0 (n=93) and
77.0% (n=323) respectively. Neonatal length positively correlated with their
BW (r=0.506, p=0.0001). Maternal BMI was positively correlated with
neonatal BW (r=0.292, p= 0.001) and length (r=0.135, p= 0.006) of the
newborn. Based on this study, variation in height of mother positively
correlated with the BW (r=0.293, p=0.001) and length (r=0.12, p=0.02) of
the newborns.
