Prädiktoren für niedriges Geburtsgewicht – Eine epidemiologische Fall-Kontroll-Studie an saarländischen Wöchnerinnen

BACKGROUND AND AIMS Low birth weight is associated with elevated health-care costs and adverse conditions for the newborn's start to life. A variety of health problems and an impaired potential for the infant's development are known long-term effects. Only few studies have examined the role of psychosocial and socioeconomic determinants for the incidence of low birth weight, especially in Germany. The aim of our study was to test the impact of maternal socioeconomic and psychosocial characteristics as well as health behaviour on the infant's birth weight. METHODS In an exploratory case-control study we tested whether the before mentioned potential determinants of low birth weight were observed more often among cases (birth weight