Aim: Recently, Japan has witnessed an increase in the number of low-birthweight (LBW) infants. LBW children face a variety of social and medical risk factors. Thus, besides reducing infant mortality, preventing LBW would have many other important health benefits. Emotional status during pregnancy is stated as one of the important risk factors for LBW. This study aims to clarify the relationship between maternal emotions and low birthweight (LBW) after adjusting the effects of other well-known factors that influence LBW.
Methods: This community-based case-control study involved 145 newborns with LBW (cases) and 213 newborns with normal weight (controls). They were born in the municipalities that fall within the jurisdiction of the Yoshida public health center between 1st January 2003 and 30th September 2004. Participants' mothers were interviewed using a simple, structured questionnaire to collect general data on mother and infant, hazardous habits and maternal socioeconomic, occupational and psychological factors. The odds ratio with a 95% confidential interval of delivering LBW infants was calculated using logistic multivariable regression analysis based on maternal and infant factors.
Results: In the multivariable regression model, the second-born or subsequent infant was unlikely to be LBW. On the contrary, maternal smoking habit during pregnancy, mothers who kept house by themselves and maternal negative attitudes towards pregnancy during the early stages promoted LBW incidence.
Conclusion: Maternal negative attitude towards pregnancy during the early stages was an independent LBW risk factor and our simple questionnaire can be used to estimate maternal psychological status in early pregnancy.