Low birth weight in the Commonwealth of Dominica, Eastern Caribbean

Low birth weight (LBW) is highly associated with neonatal death and long-term pediatric morbidity. The causes of LBW and possible intervention strategies to prevent it are being extensively studied in the developed countries. However little information is available concerning this problem in the Caribbean. This study used hospital records from 1985 to provide descriptive information about the correlates of LBW in the Commonwealth of Dominica, and to document the extent of the LBW problem. The main study objective was to examine the role of young maternal age in the outcome of LBW. The low birth weight rate for 1985 was 11.3 per cent. Teenagers, who accounted for 24.2 per cent of all births, were found to be 1.7 times likelier than older mothers to have a LBW infant (p <.02) Low birth weight infants represented 84.2 percent of neonatal deaths. These findings indicate that targeted efforts are required to investigate specific risk factors for LBW among teenagers and to plan for appropriate interventions aimed at reducing the incidence of LBW in the Caribbean