Prevalence and risk factors associated with perinatal asphyxia in newborn infants

Abstract

Perinatal asphyxia is defined as an injury to the fetus or to the newborn caused by lack of oxygen (hypoxia) and/ or lack of perfusion to some organs (ische- mia), which is enough to induce bioche- mical and functional consequences. Ob- jective: To determine the prevalence and main risk factors associated with perinatal asphyxia in a group of neonates. Methods: This is a cross-sectional, quantitative and descriptive exploratory study, conducted through interviews with puerperal women who gave birth in hospitals loca- ted in a city of the Rio Grande do Norte state, Brazil. 1079 individu- als participated of the study where 18 cases of asphyxiated newborns were identified. The inclusion cri- teria were neonates born with at least 22 weeks of gestational age with Apgar score lower than 3 in the first minute or less than 7 in the fifth minute (study group) compa- red to the control group (Apgar equal to or greater than 8 and 10 in the first and fifth minutes, res- pectively). Results: Multivariate analysis revealed an association between perinatal asphyxia with the number of prenatal consulta- tions (1.293-1.779, P = 0.030), uterine bleeding (0.021-0.934, P = 0.042) and sedation of the mo- ther (0.009-0.203, P = 0.001). Af- ter logistic analysis, the variables that remained in the model were anemia (1.820-40.874, P = 0.031), high risk of preterm birth (2.323-31.529, P = 0.009), pregnancy ble- eding (1.934-25.691, P = 0.015) and hospitalization during preg- nancy (1.174-8.247, P = 0.016). Conclusion: Information about the birth profile can direct the ac- tions of perinatal care and the con-duction of preventive practices toward pregnant women with the purpose of reducing the likelihood of perinatal asphyxia.