Obstetric outcome among Vietnamese refugees in Hong Kong: an age-matched case-controlled study

The obstetric performance of 308 Vietnamese refugees is compared with that of 308 age-matched Hong Kong Chinese patients. Vietnamese women were of higher parity and had an increased incidence of late booking and unreliable dates. Significant differences were found in the incidence of previous termination of pregnancy, iron-deficiency anemia, parasitic infestation, tuberculosis (TB) and syphilis. There was no significant difference in the mean birthweight between the two groups. However, there were twice as many low birthweight (less than 2500 g) infants amongst the Vietnamese whereas the Chinese patients had a higher incidence of macrosomic (greater than 4 kg) infants. There were no perinatal deaths and no significant perinatal morbidity.