Peso al nacimiento en comunidades de altura de la Puna Argentina: Antofagasta de la Sierra (Catamarca)

The purpose of the present study was to value the relative importance of maternal, socioeconomic and enviromental variables on the birth weight in highland ecosistems of the argentinean puna. The birth weights and their relation with the maternal age and the parity of the births happened between 1996 and 2003 in the Antofagasta de la Sierra Department, province of Catamarca, Argentina were analyzed. Birth weight was inferior to the registered one for the rest of the province as well as for other communities located in the Puna Argentina or regions of high altitudes of the American continent. The LBW incidence, as well, was greater in comparison with other communities of puna Argentine and three times superior to the registered one for the country. The birth weight was influenced by the maternal age and with the parity when it separately considered the condition of primiparity and multiparity. The early maternity next to the precarious socioeconomic conditions of the zone, seems to be the direct source of the observed situation, reducing more yet the small new born size already conditionated by the hypoxia.