CECILE
H. EDWARDS
ENID
M. KNIGHT
ALLAN
A. JOHNSON
ÃoeRAJEAN
OYEMADE
O.
JACKSON COLE,
HAZIEL
LARYEA,
OÅ’DA
E. WESTNEY AND
LENNOX
S. WESTNEY
ABSTRACT
A five year prospective
observational study was initiated in 1985 at Howard University to describe the
nutritional, clinical, dietary, lifestyle, environmental, and socioeconomic
characteristics of women who enrolled in the hospital prenatal clinic. The participants
were nulliparous, between the ages of 18 and 35 years, free of diabetes and
abnormal hemoglo bins (sickle cell disease, thalassemia, and hemoglobin C), and
had been admitted prior to the 29th week of gestation. During the three year
period from 1985-1988, the incidence of low birth weight (LBW) in 239 deliveries
to project participants was 8.3%, whereas that of women simultaneously enrolled
in the prenatal clinic with the same eligibility requirements, but not
recruited for the research project, was 21.9% (P=0.001). The incidence of LBWin
infants of African American women with these eligibility requirements who were
delivered by private physicians but were not enrolled in the project, was 6.3% The
reduction in LBW of infants delivered to partic ipants in this study is
attributed to the enhanced social and psychological support by project staff
during their pregnancies. The caring, sensitive demeanor of the research
project staff may have empowered the participants to (a) give greater
compliance (91 vs. 70%) in the ingestion of the routine physician-prescribed
vitamin/mineral supplement, which provided nutrients low (less than 70% of the
1989 RDAs) in their customary diets, such as folate, pyridoxine, iron, zinc,
and magnesium and (b) show greater accountability in keeping prenatal clinic
appointments. It is hypothesized that the enhanced social support resulted in
stress reduction and stimulation of immunocompetence in these low income women.
J. Nutr. 124: 927S-935S, 1994.(deniaprianichan)
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