Physical intimate partner violence and low birth weight in newborns from primary health care units of the city of Rio de Janeiro

• Autor(a) principal: de Souza MEZZAVILLA, Raquel
• Data de Publicação: 2023
• Outros Autores: HASSELMANN, Maria Helena
• Tipo de documento: Artigo
• Idioma: eng
• Título da fonte: Revista de Nutrição
• Texto Completo: https://periodicos.puc-campinas.edu.br/nutricao/article/view/8031
• topic: Birth weight; Nutrition; Spouse abuse; Violence; Peso ao nascer; Nutrição; Maus-tratos conjugais; Violência

ObjectiveTo investigate the association between physical intimate partner violence and low birth weight. MethodsThis cross-sectional study included 604 children with approximately 30 days of age who visited four primary health care units in the city of Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, for the second dose of hepatitis B vaccine. Children with a birth weight below 2.500 g were considered underweight. Information regarding physical intimate partner violence was obtained by the Portuguese version of the Conflict Tactics Scale. The study investigated the 12 months prior to interview. Physical intimate partner violence was analyzed as a dichotomous variable and cumulatively. Associations between physical intimate partner violence and low birth weight were verified bylogistic regression models based on crude and adjusted odds ratios and their respective 95% confidence intervals. ResultsSome (7.1%) babies were born underweight, and 33.6% of the mothers had been exposed to physical intimate partner violence. Physical intimate partner violence was significantly associated with low birth weight (OR=3.69; 95%CI=1.57-8.66). Notably, the odds of low birth weight increase with the severity of violence. ConclusionThese findings draw attention to the consequences of physical intimate partner violence on the nutritional status of newborns and emphasize the need of greater attention during prenatal care to improve women’s quality of life and to reduce the rate of low birth weight.