Correlates of low birth weight.

In order to provide a base line for long term follow-up, the background, methodology and major conclusions of a prospective study of low birth weight infants (less than or to equal to 2500 g) and their matched controls (greater than 2500 g) were studied and the results presented. The low birth weight babies were disadvantaged in respect of a number of bio-social parameters, had an excess of maternal and pregnancy disease conditions and a more unfavourable outcome in other pregnancies. The cohort was used to try and evolve a better definition of impaired fetal growth. The relative merits of using weight, head circumference, length, ratio of anthropometric measurements, relative centile position of anthropometric measurements in the same baby, cluster analysis techniques and clinical morbidity as estimates of impaired fetal growth were analysed: none defined impaired fetal growth more accurately than weight for gestational age. Methods of estimating gestational age and physical characteristics relating to growth and gestational age, as well as a number of biochemical and neonatal measurements, are described.