To obtain the low birth weight (LBW) rate, the very low birth weight (VLBW) rate, and gestational age (GA)-specific birth weight distribution based on a large population in Korea, we collected and analyzed the birth data of 108,486 live births with GA greater than 23 weeks for 1 yr from 1 January to 31 December 2001, from 75 hospitals and clinics located in Korea. These data included birth weig...

Two articles in this issue (1,2) address an important but often-overlooked area of investigation: maternal intergenerational factors in reproductive problems, or "...those factors, conditions, exposures, and environments experienced by one generation that relate to the health, growth, and development of the next generation" (3, p. 27). Coutinho et al. (1) linked infants' birth certificates to m...

BACKGROUND Recent advances in perinatal technology have dramatically increased the survival of very low birth weight (VLBW) infants (<1500 g). The possibility that these advances may also prolong the time to death and increase pain and suffering has been of concern, but there have been no population-based evaluations of this issue. METHODS Infant, neonatal, and postneonatal mortality rates an...

Copyright © 2008 Massachusetts Medical Society. Approximately 12.5% of births in the United States are preterm (occurring before 37 weeks of gestation). Preterm infants with “very low” birth weight are those who weigh 1500 g or less; those with “extremely low” birth weight weigh 1000 g or less. Although they account for only 1.5% and 0.7% of live births, respectively, these infants contribute d...

BACKGROUND The role of fathers in the development of obesity in their offspring remains poorly understood. We evaluated associations of missing paternal demographic information on birth certificates with perinatal risk factors for childhood obesity. METHODS Data were from the Linked CENTURY Study, a database linking birth certificate and well-child visit data for 200,258 Massachusetts childre...

OBJECTIVE To determine trends in the prevalence of congenital cerebral palsy (CP) over a 16-year period for 1-year survivors using a large, population-based surveillance program. METHODS We determined birth weight-specific trends in the prevalence of CP in live birth and 1-year survivor cohorts of children in a 5-county metropolitan Atlanta area for the periods from 1975-1977, 1981-1985, and ...

Latest World Health Organization guidelines recommend weight-based nevirapine prophylaxis for all HIV-exposed infants in resource-limited settings, yet low birth weight (LBW) infants (< 2500 g) have been understudied. Using data from the NIH-funded India six-week extended-dose nevirapine (SWEN) study, a randomized clinical trial of SWEN versus single-dose nevirapine (SD) for prevention of breas...

The possibilities of preventing intra-ventricular/ sub-ependymal hemorrhage (IVH) are of greatest interest. Unfortunately only fragments are known of the pathogenesis [17, 18]. It has been pointed out that IVH is associated with gestational age, respiratory distress and vigorous resuscitation procedures. Only the latter is of any practical relevance to the clinician and calls for gentleness in ...

Retinopathy of prematurity (ROP) is a multifactorial vasoproliferative retinal disorder that increases in incidence with decreasing gestational age. Recently, an association between hyperglycemia and severe ROP was found in extremely low birth weight infants (ELBWI). The purpose of this study was to evaluate the possible relation between hyperglycemia and ROP at any stage in very low birth weig...

background: one of the most common methods of identifying mortality risk is the clinical risk index for babies scoring system (crib- ii). the aim of this study was assessing the value of crib- ii in predicting mortality risk in preterm and low birth weight infants in east azerbaijan- iran. materials and methods: this prospective cohort study was carried out in 2013-2014 during 6 months in nicus...