BACKGROUND Maternal smoking in pregnancy lowers birthweight. It is unclear, however, whether smoking during pregnancy lowers offspring IQ, and, if it does, whether it is through the smoking effect on fetal growth. METHOD Representative samples of low birthweight (<2500 g) and normal birthweight children born in 1983-85 from inner-city and suburban communities in southeast Michigan, USA were a...

It has been shown that lower birthweight is associated with lower IQ, but it remains unclear whether this association is causal or spurious. We examined the relationship between birthweight and IQ in two prospective longitudinal birth cohorts: a UK cohort of 1116 twin pairs (563 monozygotic [MZ] pairs), born in 1994-95, and a New Zealand cohort of 1037 singletons born in 1972-73. IQ was tested ...

BACKGROUND Maternal smoking during pregnancy has been consistently related to low birthweight. However, older mothers, who are already at risk of giving birth to low birthweight infants, might be even more susceptible to the effects of maternal smoking. Therefore, this study aimed to examine the modified association between maternal smoking and low birthweight by maternal age. METHODS Data we...

Evidence suggests that risk of chronic diseases may be programmed during the foetal and early life of the infant. With high rates of low birthweight coupled with a rapid nutritional transition, low-income countries are facing an epidemic of chronic diseases. Follow-up of a cohort of adults born during 1964-1978 in an urban slum in Lahore, Pakistan, is presented in this paper. In 695 of these ad...

OBJECTIVE To determine the prevalence of placental pathology among low birthweight infants delivered at Srinagarind Hospital. MATERIAL AND METHOD Descriptive study of 114 placentas from infants weighing between 500 and 2,499 grams delivered between June 2002 and June 2004 in the labour room, Srinagarind Hospital. Placentas from low birthweight infants were examined by a perinatal pathologist ...

The composition of breast milk from brazilian mothers delivering low birthweight infants and its adequacy as a source of nutrients for this group has not yet been fully elucidated. A total of 209 milk samples from 66 women were analysed. The mothers were divided into three groups: G1, mothers delivering term babies of low birthweight (TSGA, n = 16); G2, mothers delivering preterm babies of appr...

cator of neonatal health. Aboriginal women tend to give birth to a greater percentage of high birthweight babies than non-Aboriginal women. However, the birthweight distribution among the Canadian native population and particularly among the Cree has not been well documented. The aim of this study was to document the birthweight distribution, determine the prevalence of low and high birthweight...

OBJECTIVE Low birthweight is associated with a decreased risk of childhood leukemia and an increased risk of both cardiovascular disease and all-cause mortality in adult life. Possible biological mediators include systemic innate immunity and inflammation. We tested the hypothesis that birthweight was inversely associated with serum high sensitivity C reactive protein assay (hsCRP), a measure o...