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Low Birthweight Births
Low Birthweight Births is the percent of all births in which the infant
weighed less than 2,500 grams. Birthweight is a key indicator of the
health and viability of a newborn infant. Those infants who have a
birthweight under 2,500 grams (about 5 1/2 pounds) are at greater risk
of death or of incurring long-term illness or disability. The Infant
Mortality Rate of infants under 1,500 grams is more than 60 times
higher than for infants weighing 2,500 grams or more. Even infants
weighing between 1,500 and 2,499 grams have an infant mortality rate
more than five times as high as normal weight infants.
As an infant health measure, birthweight has many advantages. It is
available for every infant and it is entirely objective. The data are
continuously distributed, ranging from less than 500 grams to more than
6,000 grams.
Low Birthweight Births are calculated as a percent of all births. For
example, of the 36,982 births in Arkansas in 2001, 3,249 weighed less
than 2,500 grams. The Percent Low Birthweight = 3,249 / 36,982 X 100 =
8.8 percent. In the United States, the rate of low birthweight for
2001 was 7.7 percent.
Low birthweight births in Arkansas are clustered principally in a band
stretching across the southern counties. For the 1997-2001 period, the
percentage of low birthweight births ranged from a low of 5.3 percent
in Montgomery County to a high of 15.0 percent in Dallas County. The
Southeast Public Health region had the highest average proportion of
low birthweight births from 1997 to 2001 at 10.7 percent, whereas the
Northwest region had the lowest average at 7.0 percent.
For Arkansas, the long-term trend in low birthweight had been extremely
stable. From 1990 through 1995, the percent of Low Birthweight Births
remained unchanged at 8.2 percent and rose only slightly in 1996 and
1997, at 8.5 and 8.3 percent, respectively. The Low Birthweight Births
has been between 8.6 and 8.9 percent of all births since 1998.
Nationally, Low Birthweight Births have continued being the highest
reported since the early 1970's more than two decades at 7.7 percent.
There is still, however, a much higher incidence of Low Birthweight
Births among Blacks than among Whites, both nationally and in Arkansas.
For Black Arkansans, the five-year average percent of low birthweight
births was 13.5, compared to 7.3 for White Arkansans. One contributing
factor for the higher rate among Black infants is that they are much
more likely to have been born prematurely. Black mothers are also more
likely to have a low weight gain during pregnancy. In Arkansas, low
birthweight births to Black mothers dropped from a five-year high rate
in 1998 of 13.9 to 12.9 for 1999 but rose again in 2000 to 13.4 and
13.5 in 2001.
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