Antecedents of Low Birthweight in Harlem, New York City

Antecedents of low birthweight were studied among registered, singleton black births at Harlem Hospital, New York City, for the years 1964–1967. Contingency table and multiple regression analyses were performed. A minimum of 7,000 births were available for all analyses. Our findings were as follows: associations between birthweight and maternal height, age, and parity were negligible, once maternal prepregnant weight was controlled; the association of birthweight with mothers, prepregnant weight, weight gain in pregnancy, and history of previous low birthweight delivery persisted in analyses that introduced all available control variables. We interpret these findings as supportive of the hypothesis that nutrition during pregnancy is a determinant of birthweight.