Muhammad Rafique, Shumaila Zia, Ubaidullah, Muhammad Ashraf Sultan.
Impact of socioeconomic status on birth weight and length of Newborns delivered at Services Hospital Lahore.
Pak Paed J Jan ;32(2):94-100.

Objectives: 1. To determine the impact of socioeconomic status (SES) on birth weight (BW) and birth length (BL) of newborns. To find out the mean birth weight (MBW) and mean birth length (MBL) of a cohort of 500 babies delivered in the hospital from February to August 2003. Study Design: Descriptive cross sectional study. Set Up & Duration: Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology Services Hospital Lahore, from February to August 2003 Material & Methods: Full term, healthy, normal, singleton, consecutive 500 newborns were measured for BW and BL within 24 hours after birth. Information was gathered for assessment of SES of the families and correlation with BW and BL was determined. These families were divided into upper middle (UM), middle and lower socioeconomic (SE) classes. Chi square test was applied to calculate the p value for the significance level in MBW and MBL in UM and lower SE class babies. Results: The distribution of upper middle, middle and lower socioeconomic class families was 6%, 49% and 45% respectively. In these SE classes MBW was 3185 grams, 3015 grams and 3105 grams respectively and MBL was 49.5 cm, 49.3 cm and 48.7 cm respectively. Difference in MBW and MBL of upper middle class and lower SE class babies was statistically significant with p-value < 0.01. Overall MBW and MBL of study population were 3060 grams and 49.04 cm respectively. Male babies were found 127 grams heavier and 0.52 cm taller than female counterparts. Percentage of low birth weight was high in female babies and also in Lower SE class babies. Conclusion: Overall MBW and MBL were 3060 gram and 49.04 cm respectively. These measurements were higher in upper middle SE class as compared to lower SE class, indicating a significant impact of SES on these measurements.

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