II.

Predictors of Birthweight
Source: Hosmer DW and Lemeshow S. Applied Logistic Regression. Wiley and Sons. New
York,1989.
Birthweight is an outcome that is of utmost concern to health workers. Birthweight is a strong
predictor of infant mortality and morbidity. There are several factors that have been
suggested to be correlated with birthweight. Among these are socio-demographic
characteristics (e.g. age and race), health status of mother during pregnancy (e.g. weight,
history of hypertension, history of premature labor and uterine irritability) and health behaviors
(e.g. smoking and prenatal care). It would be significant to identify which of these
characteristics and behaviors are important predictors of low birthweight for possible health
interventions. In particular, it would be of particular to determine the possible effect of
smoking during pregnancy on birthweight of infants.
The data contains information on the age, weight, race, smoking status, history of premature
labor, history of hypertension, presence of urinary irritability, number of first trimester visits
(prenatal care) of pregnant women in the US.

Item (variable name) Description Coding instruction

(id) Identification Number 3-digit ID number

(age) Age of Mother Actual age in years

(lwt) Weight of Mother as Weight in pounds

of Last Menstruation

(race) Race 1- White, 2 - Black, 3- Others

(smoke) Smoking during 0 - No, 1- Yes

pregnancy

(ht) History of 0 - No, 1- Yes

Hypertension

(ui) Presence of Uterine 0 - No, 1- Yes

Irritability

(ftv) First Trimester visits Actual number of visits

(bwt) Birthweight of Infant Actual weight in grams

Sbw Status of infant 1 – low birthweight, 2 normal

birthweight birthweight
a. Label the variables and their codes in the SPSS .
b. What is profile of the participants when grouped according to Race, Smoking during
pregnancy, History of Hypertension, Presence of Uterine Irritability, and Status of
infant birth weight
c. Is there a significant difference on the birth weight of infant when grouped
according to smokers and non-smokers during pregnancy?
d. Is there a significant difference on the birth weight of infant when grouped
according to mother’s race?
e. Is there a significant correlation between mother’s age, weight of mother as of last
menstruation and birth weight of infant?
f. Is there a significant relationship between mother’s presence of uterine irritability
and status of infant birth weight?