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APHA Scientific Session and Event Listing

Kohta Suzuki, MD, PhD, Junko Minai, MLS, and Zentaro Yamagata, MD, PhD. Department of Health Sciences, School of Medicine, University of Yamanashi, 1110 Shimokato, Chuo, Yamanashi, Japan, +81-55-273-9566, kohtas@yamanashi.ac.jp

Objective: Low birth weight (LBW) children face a variety of social and medical risk factors. Emotional status during pregnancy is stated as one of the important risk factors for LBW. This study aims to clarify the relationship between maternal emotion towards pregnancy and LBW using multiple logistic regression analysis to adjust the effects of other well-known factors. Design: Community-based case-control study Setting: Yoshida public health center and Department of Health Sciences, School of Medicine, University of Yamanashi at Yamanashi prefecture, Japan Participants: This case-control study involved 189 newborns with LBW (cases) and 366 newborns with normal weight (controls). They were born in the municipalities that fall within the jurisdiction of the Yoshida public health center between 1st January 2003 and 30th September 2004. Method: Participants' mothers were interviewed using a simple, structured questionnaire to collect general data on mother and infant, hazardous habits and maternal socioeconomic, occupational and psychological factors. Main Outcome Measure: The odds ratio with a 95% confidential interval of delivering LBW infants was calculated using logistic multivariable regression analysis based on maternal and infant factors. Results: In the multivariable regression model, the second-born or subsequent infant was unlikely to be LBW. On the contrary, maternal smoking habit during pregnancy, mothers who kept house by themselves and maternal negative emotions towards pregnancy during the early stages promoted LBW incidence. Conclusion: Maternal negative emotion towards pregnancy during the early stages was an independent LBW risk factor and our simple questionnaire can be used to estimate maternal psychological status.

Learning Objectives:

• At the conclusion of the session, the participant (learner) in this session will be able to discuss maternal psychological status during pregnancy as risk factor for low birth weight infants.

Keywords: Low Birthweight, Public Health

Presenting author's disclosure statement:

Not Answered