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Violence among pregnant women is a potential risk factor for low birth weight in full-term neonates: a population-based retrospective cohort study
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  • shiow-Ing Wu,
  • Wei-Szu Li n,
  • Ching-Heng Lin,
  • Hsiu-Yuan Chang
shiow-Ing Wu
National Health Research Institutes

Corresponding Author:[email protected]

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Wei-Szu Li n
Taichung Veterans General Hospital
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Ching-Heng Lin
Taichung Veterans General Hospital
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Hsiu-Yuan Chang
Ministry of Health and Welfare
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Abstract

Objective To examine whether the risk of low birth weight stratified by preterm and term deliveries was different between pregnant women exposed or unexposed to violence. Design A population-based retrospective cohort study. Population Four national databases in Taiwan were linked for analysis. Method A total of 1,322 subjects associated with a report of domestic violence during pregnancy were compared with 485,981 subjects without any record of reported domestic violence. Results The percentage of low birth weight in the group exposed to domestic violence was significantly higher than in the unexposed group with full-term delivery (48.6% vs. 46.7%, P=0.001), while there was no statistically significant difference with preterm delivery. Multivariable logistic regression analysis showed that pregnant women exposed to domestic violence had an OR of 1.37 (95% CI: 10.5, 1.79) for low birth weight in full-term delivery; however, domestic violence was not significantly associated with low birth weight in preterm delivery. Conclusions Women whose full-term neonate had low birth weight should be high-priority targets for domestic violence screening in the perinatal health care system.