Abstract

CELADA-QUEZADA, Rolando. Nutritional status in very low birth weight newborns in the cohort born during year 2006 at "San Juan de Dios" hospital. Acta pediátr. costarric [online]. 2008, vol.20, n.1, pp.19-23. ISSN 1409-0090.

Aim: To describe the nutritional condition of very low birth weight newborns. Methods: Descriptive study of the nutrional condition of very low birth-weight infants born during 2006 at Hospital San Juan de Dios. The study describes: 1) The proportion of newborns that were very low birth-weight 2) The mortality rate among very low birth-weight infants that were classified as adecuate for gestational age, the mortality rate among very low birth-weight infants that were classified as small for gestational age. The two mortality rates are compared. 3) The proportion of very low birth-weight infants that left the premature guard being undernourished. 4) The mean number of days of stay for those very low birth weight infants classified as adequate for gestational age and those classified as small for gestational age. Results: Thirty five per cent of very low birth-weight infants were born undernourished. Of those very low birth weight infants that were small for gestational age 46.7% died while of those who were adequate for gestational age, 25.5% died, for a relative risk of 1.83 (p=0.04). Of those very low birth weight infants that left the premature guard alive, 58.5% were undernourished. The mean length of stay for those adequate for gestational age was 23.1 days and the mean length of stay for those undernourished was 43.45 days (p=0.029) Conclusions: One third of very low birth-weight newborns were born under nourished and a larger proportion died, when compared with the groups with adequate weight.

Keywords : Newborns; low birth-weight; mortality.

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