Return to Table of Contents Go to Map
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 36,672
births in Arkansas in 1999, 3,151 weighed less than 2,500 grams. The Percent Low
Birthweight = 3,151 / 36,672 X 100 = 8.6 percent. In the United States the rate of low
birthweight for 1999 was 7.6 percent.
Low birthweight births in Arkansas are clustered principally in a band stretching from
Nevada County southwest up to Mississippi County in the northeast corner. For the 1995-
1999 period, the percentage of low birthweight births ranged from a low of 5.1 percent in
Montgomery County to a high of 13.0 percent in Prairie County. The Southeast Public
Health region had the highest average proportion of low birthweight births from 1995-
1999 at 10.4 percent, whereas the Northwest region had the lowest average at 7.1 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 rose significantly in 1998, however, with 8.9 percent of all births
being Low Birthweight Births. In 1999, the rate went down slightly to 8.6 percent
Nationally, Low Birthweight Births have continued being the highest reported in more than
two decades at 7.6 percent. National Center for Health Statistics attributes much of the
increase to a rise in low birthweight births among Whites.
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 13.3, compared to 7.2 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.
Return to Table of Contents Go to Map