Trends and Outcome of Low Birth Weight (LBW) Infants in India

Excerpt

“Born too soon” is a recent global action report on preterm birth brought out by WHO [1]. Born too light is as crucial as being born too soon. In fact, the “too light group” i.e. the low birth weight (LBW) babies constitute a larger cohort and yet are as vulnerable as the preterms. More than 20 million infants worldwide, representing 16 % of all births in developing countries, are born with LBW. Almost 95 % of these births are in developing countries [2]. In India, almost eight million LBW infants are born each year which accounts for nearly 40 % of the global burden—the highest for any country. LBW babies have 11–13 times higher risk for poor outcome during neonatal period when compared to normal weight babies. They continue to have higher morbidity and mortality beyond the neonatal period and are at risk of developing variety of adult onset diseases [3]. A LBW newborn can have intrauterine growth restriction (IUGR), prematurity or both. In the developed countries, most of the LBW babies are preterm while in India they are predominantly termed intrauterine growth retardation (IUGR). However with increasing preterm births in India, this scenario is likely to change. As LBW has strong association with both maternal and infant mortality, it can serve as a surrogate marker for both these indices. …