IJE Advance Access originally published online on November 9, 2005
International Journal of Epidemiology 2006 35(2):270-276; doi:10.1093/ije/dyi225
| ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Perinatal Epidemiology |
Decline in, and lack of difference between, average birth weights among African and Portuguese babies in Portugal
1 MRC Social and Public Health Sciences Unit, University of Glasgow, Glasgow, UK.
2 Centro de Estudos Geográficos, Universidade de Coimbra, Coimbra, Portugal.
3 Clinical Epidemiology Group, University Department of Medicine, Manchester Royal Infirmary, Manchester, UK.
* Corresponding author. MRC Social and Public Health Sciences Unit, University of Glasgow, 4 Lilybank Gardens, Glasgow G12 8RZ, UK. E-mail: seeromanie{at}msoc.mrc.gla.ac.uk
Background In preliminary data in Portugal, we found that African babies of migrant mothers were heavier than White Portuguese babies born in Lisbon. We investigate whether this pattern is replicated in the national data, and in addition the trends in birth weight in these groups.
Methods Design and setting: Births registered between 1995 and 2002 classified by reported nationality of mothers. Participants: 849 595 Portuguese births (‘Portuguese’ nationality, predominantly of European descent) and 22 463 African births (‘Angola’, ‘Cape Verde’, or ‘Guinea Bissau, Republic of Guinea or Equatorial Guinea’ nationality, predominantly of African origin).
Results Among Portuguese births, there was a decline in births to teenaged mothers and an increase to mothers aged 
35 years, with >9 years of education or in a non-manual class, but among African births there was an increase in births to teenaged mothers and a decline to mothers from advantaged socioeconomic backgrounds. Using the Wilcox–Russell method, overall mean birth weights of term Portuguese (3303, SD 424 g) and African (3297, SD 441 g) babies were not different but the percentage of small preterm births was higher among African (4.7%) than among Portuguese (2.9%) births. Between 1995 and 2002, mean birth weight of term Portuguese babies declined by 58 g (3334–3276 g) and of African babies by 57 g (3341–3284 g). The left shift of the birth weight distributions was independent of maternal age, parity, and social factors among Portuguese babies, but among African babies the decrease appeared to be associated with socioeconomic advantage.
Conclusion There has been a downward trend in birth weights in Portugal among both Portuguese and African term births, but average birth weights of the two groups were similar.
Keywords Declining birth weights, Portugal, Portuguese and African babies
Accepted 5 October 2005
CiteULike 
Connotea 
Del.icio.us What's this?
This article has been cited by other articles:
|
|
 |
|
  L H Mortensen, F Diderichsen, G D. Smith, and A M N. Andersen Time is on whose side? Time trends in the association between maternal social disadvantage and offspring fetal growth. A study of 1 409 339 births in Denmark, 1981-2004 J Epidemiol Community Health, April 1, 2009; 63(4): 281 - 285. [Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]
|
|
|
|
 |
|
 J. Wells Commentary: Games people play--birthweight Int. J. Epidemiol., April 1, 2006; 35(2): 277 - 279. [Full Text] [PDF]
|
|