Los Factores de Riesgo y el Peso al Nacer en el Uruguay

This study investigates the impact of three types of health risk factors (epidemiological, fetal, and maternal) and prenatal care on birthweight outcomes in Uruguay. The data are from the main maternity in Uruguay (Hospitalario Pereira Rossell), are provided by the Latin American Center for Perinatalogy and Human Development (Centro Latinoamericano de Perinatología y Desarrollo Humano) and cover the period 1995 to 2003. The study finds that the risk factors are significant predictors of birthweight and the incidence of low birthweight; furthermore, the risk factors generally have larger impacts on birthweight outcomes than prenatal care. Although it is important to increase the use of prenatal care in order to improve birthweight, it may be more important that health care providers pay special attention to these risk factors during prenatal care visits.