Changing scenario of birthweight in south India

Reducing incidence of low birthweight and increasing mean birthweights are now considered seriously in the national action plans. Comparison of birthweights obtained over two decades from the representative random segments of rural and urban areas of North Arcot Ambedkar district, Tamil Nadu, India, were studied. Although statistically significant (p < 0.001), the mean birthweight shows only a marginal increase of 70 g from 2774.5 g (+/- 500.2) in 1969-73 to 2845.4 g (+/- 451.0) in 1989-93. The mean birthweight stratified by area and gender also revealed similar increase. On the other hand, the proportion of low birthweight (< 2500 g) newborns reduced significantly from 27.2% to 15.9% in rural and 19.1% to 10.8% in urban area over the decades (p < 0.001). The increase in the mean birthweight and the decline in the percentage of low birthweight newborns over the years was greater in rural than the urban community, but the rural newborns continued to weigh lesser than their urban counterparts.