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  • Title: Low birth weight in China and Finland.
    Author: Xu B, Rantakallio P.
    Journal: Scand J Soc Med; 1998 Mar; 26(1):10-7. PubMed ID: 9526759.
    Abstract:
    Although a developing country, China has a lower occurrence of low birth weight (LBW) than many developed countries. This study of two population-based one-year birth cohorts, from Finland in 1985-86 and China in 1992, shows the occurrence of low birth weight (LBW) (1000- < 2500 g) among singletons to be 2.6 percent in the Chinese cohort and 3.0 percent in the Finnish one, and that of preterm births (28- < 37 weeks) 2.7 percent and 4.5 percent, respectively. The main component of LBW is term LBW (57.4 percent) in the Chinese case and preterm LBW (64.7 percent) in the Finnish case. The perinatal mortality rate (PMR) was twice as high in the Chinese cohort (13.0 vs. 5.9 per thousand). The occurrence of LBW in the Finnish cohort decreased to 2.3 percent after crosstabulation of the Finnish mothers to conform in structure to the population of Chinese mothers in terms of maternal age, marital status and maternal smoking. The result suggests that the lower incidence of LBW in the Chinese cohort seems to be a reflection of the Chinese socio-cultural environment, which provides Chinese mothers with favourable characteristics. The Finnish excess LBW would have disappeared if the mothers had possessed those characteristics as well. The excess perinatal deaths in the Chinese series might be explained by the different levels of perinatal health care in the two countries. Even though China is a developing country, it has a lower occurrence of low birth weight (LBW) than many developed countries. The incidence of LBW, preterm births, and perinatal mortality was assessed in a cohort of 9391 children born in 1992 in Qingdao, China, and a cohort of 9479 children born in 1985-86 in Northern Finland. 2.6% of the singleton children in the Chinese cohort and 3.0% in the Finnish one were born LBW, while the occurrence of preterm births was 2.7% and 4.5%, respectively. The main component of LBW is term LBW (57.4%) in the Chinese cohort and preterm LBW (64.7%) in the Finnish cohort. The perinatal mortality rate (PMR) was 13.0/1000 in the Chinese cohort compared to 5.9/1000 in the Finnish cohort. However, after cross-tabulating the population of Finnish mothers to conform in structure to the population of Chinese mothers in terms of maternal age, marital status, and maternal smoking, the occurrence of LBW in the Finnish cohort decreased to 2.3%. The lower incidence of LBW in the Chinese cohort therefore seems to be a reflection of the Chinese sociocultural environment, which provides Chinese mothers with favorable characteristics in terms of age, marital status, and smoking. The excess perinatal mortality in the Chinese cohort may be explained by the different levels of perinatal health care in the two countries.
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