Maternal Anemia during pregnancy and infant low birth weight: A systematic review and Meta-analysis

Abstract

Background: Infant low birth weight is one of the major problems in differentsocieties. Different reports have provided different results regarding the relationshipbetween maternal anemia and infant low birth weight in different months ofpregnancy. Objective: The aim of this study was to determine the relationship betweenmaternal anemia during pregnancy and infant low birth weight. Materials and Methods: This systematic review was conducted using relatedkeywords in national (Sid, Iran.doc, Iran medex and Magiran) and international(PubMed, Science Direct, Cochrane, Medline, Web of Science, Scopus, Springer,Embase, Google scholar) databases. Relative risks and confidence intervals wereextracted from each study. The results were combined using random-effects modelfor meta-analysis. The I2 index was also used to measure heterogeneity between thestudies. Results: Overall, 17 studies with a total sample size of 245407 entered the finalmeta-analysis and demonstrated that the relative risk for maternal anemia in the first,second and third trimester of pregnancy were 1.26 (95% CI: 1.03-1.55), 0.97 (95%CI: 0.57-1.65), and 1.21 (95% CI: 0.84-1.76), respectively. The relationship betweenmaternal anemia and infant low birth weight in the first trimester of pregnancy wassignificant. Conclusion: Maternal anemia, especially during the first trimester of pregnancy, canbe considered as a risk factor for pregnancy outcomes. Therefore, one needs to takethe necessary steps to cure this disease in order to reduce the incidence of infant lowbirth weight.

Keywords

• anemia
• hemoglobin
• low birth weight
• pregnancy
• pregnant women
• metaanalysis.