Recent birthweight distribution and trends in Kuala Lumpur

The birthweights of 13,614 singleton infants comprising 5376 Malays, 5352 Chinese and 2886 Indians born at the Maternity Hospital Kuala Lumpur, during 1973, 1975 and 1977 have been extracted and analysed. Male Chinese infants (3.16 ± 0.37 kg) were significantly heavier than Malay and Indian infants while the male Malay infants (3.12 ± 0.41 kg) were significantly heavier than the Indian (2.97 ± 0.41 kg). Both female Chinese (3.04 ± 0.38 kg) and Malay infants (3.05 ± 0.38 kg) were heavier than the female Indian (2.89 ± 0.39 kg) but there was no difference in birthweight between Chinese and Malay female infants. The mean gestational period and the proportion of full-term births were similar for all 3 races with averages of 39.9 weeks and 77.8 percent respectively. Maternal age at first birth was also closely similar for the three communities with an average of 22.9 years. Significant correlations were found between birthweight and length of neonates, birthweight and gravida, birthweight and maternal age. Indians have a higher incidence of low birthweight or small-for-gestational age infants (14.5 percent) compared to the Chinese (5.6 percent) and the Malays (7.6 percent); the incidence of low birthweights being higher in girls than in boys. Present-day Malay and Indian full-term male and female infants are significantly heavier than their counterparts born at the same Hospital two decades ago, but no difference in birthweight was observed for Chinese infants during this time interval. The gap between the incidence of low birthweight found in Malaysia and those in the developed countries seems to be narrowing and this may be taken to reflect the overall effects of socioeconomic development, including the greater availability of general health and ante-natal care throughout the country since its Independence in 1957.