Relationships between infection with Plasmodium falciparum during pregnancy, measures of placental malaria, and adverse birth outcomes

Table 3 Associations between a composite indicator of malaria in pregnancy and adverse birth outcomes

Risk factor	Category			Low birth weight (< 2500 gm)			Preterm birth (< 37 weeks)			Small for gestational age (< 10‰)
Risk factor		Malaria burden during pregnancy	Placental malaria	Risk	aRR^a (95% CI)	p	Risk	aRR^a (95% CI)	p	Risk	aRR^a (95% CI)	p
Composite indicator of malaria in pregnancy	1	None	None	6/47 (12.8%)	Reference		2/47 (4.3%)	Reference		9/47 (19.2%)	Reference
	2	Low	None	8/110 (7.3%)	0.56 (0.20–1.55)	0.27	5/110 (4.6%)	1.06 (0.22–5.08)	0.95	16/110 (14.6%)	0.74 (0.35–1.58)	0.44
	3	High	None	3/18 (16.7%)	1.41 (0.36–5.54)	0.63	2/18 (11.1%)	3.33 (0.51–21.6)	0.21	4/18 (22.2%)	1.16 (0.40–3.36)	0.79
	4	Any	Pigment only^b	10/82 (12.2%)	0.77 (0.28–2.13)	0.61	9/82 (11.0%)	1.74 (0.34–8.96)	0.51	17/82 (20.7%)	0.90 (0.42–1.92)	0.78
	5	Any	Parasites detected^c	11/25 (44.0%)	2.85 (0.92–8.90)	0.07	8/25 (32.0%)	5.88 (1.02–34.0)	0.048	11/25 (44.0%)	1.85 (0.79–4.36)	0.16
Gravidity	Multigravida			18/182 (9.9%)	Reference		9/182 (5.0%)	Reference		30/182 (16.5%)	Reference
Gravidity	Primigravida			20/100 (20.0%)	1.60 (0.80–3.23)	0.19	17/100 (17.0%)	2.42 (0.84–7.00)	0.10	27/100 (27.0%)	1.43 (0.86–2.39)	0.17
IPTp drug	DP			22/184 (12.0%)	Reference		16/184 (8.7%)	Reference		34/184 (18.5%)	Reference
IPTp drug	SP			16/98 (16.3%)	0.89 (0.44–1.83)	0.76	10/98 (10.2%)	0.67 (0.27–1.66)	0.39	23/98 (23.5%)	1.04 (0.63–1.71)	0.89

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