Birth Weight in Israel, 1968–70

Abstract

SummaryThe influence of the country of origin of the father on mean birth weight of offspring of Jewish immigrants to Israel has been examined in an analysis of 98% of records of live births for the period 1968–70. The mean birth weight of infants born to parents from the same country (in-group marriages) was 3309 ± 570 g and that of infants whose parents came from different countries (out-group marriages) was 3289 ± 565 g: these differences are not significant.Infants born to immigrants from North African countries are heavier, and those born to immigrants from Asian countries lighter, than the Israeli mean. Apart from Algeria (whose immigrants have babies heavier than those from other North African countries) and India and Yemen (whose immigrants have babies lighter than those from other countries of Asia) there were no significant differences in adjusted mean birth weight by country of origin, within each continental group.Mean birth weight is determined by a combination of maternal and environmental factors, paternal factors having little effect.Analysis of birth weights of second and subsequent generations of Israeli-born, by origin of their grandparents, shows a fall in mean birth weight of those of North African descent and a rise in those of Asian descent, i.e. a tendency to approach an Israeli mean.(Summary in Hebrew, p. 164.)

Community diagnosis of physical growth of infants based on monitoring in a routine preventive service.

“…Previous reports of studies of physical growth of Israeli children were concerned with the newborn (Handlesman and Davies, 1975; with infants at twelve months of age (Nichaman and Reshef, 1978); and with schoolchildren (Shiloh and Yekutiel, 1958;Nichaman and Reshef, 1978). The studies were observations of selected groups of children at one time and none of them described a total community at various ages.…”