Evaluation of Association between Maternal Periodontal Disease and Infant Preterm Low Birth Weight: A Case Control Study

The theme of World Health Day 2005 was healthy mothersand children. It is essential that women are able to go through pregnancy and child birth safely, that the outcome of pregnancies is successfulin terms of maternal and infant survival and well being. However, despite the advances in obstetrical prevention, diagnostics, and therapy innumerable challenges persist. 

Preterm low birth weight (PLBW) is still considered to be the greatest problem in obstetrical medicine and remains the leading cause of morbidity and mortality among the newly born children. 


Preterm birth (PTB), which refers to the delivery of a new born child before the 37th week of pregnancy and low birth weight (LBW), which refers to the birth of a newborn child with a weight less than 2500 gms are grouped under the term of PLBW . PLBW children seem to have a higher risk for a strain of acute and chronic disorders that impair systemic health throughout their life.The prevalence of LBW in the United States is about 7.3%.
In the United Kingdom 6% of all live births are classified as LBW and 6.7% as PLBW. 

In Africa the average LBW is around 12% and around 15% in Asia. 
Globally, about 16% of the infants born in the world are LBW infants. Incidence of preterm labor is 23.3% and of preterm delivery 10-69% in India. The national neonatology forum data for the year 1995 yielded a LBW prevalence of 32.8%, and 33% of the LBW infants were preterm .Established risk factors for PLBW include high (>34years) and low (<17 years) maternal age, low maternal weight gain, low socioeconomic status, ethnicity, poor nutritional status, and stress, inadequate prenatal care, low pregravid weight, multiple gestations, gestational diabetes,hypertension, diabetes, generalized infections, genito-urinary tract infections, drug abuse, cigarette smoking, and excessive alcohol consumption, while previous PTB is a strong predictive marker of future pre-term labor. Despite the considerable progress in describing the risk factors involved in PLBW, a high proportion of PLBW, in over 50% of clinical cases have unexplained etiology.

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