Malaria at Parturition in Nigeria: Current Status and Delivery Outcome

Table 1

Characteristics of the study population, pregnancy outcome and malaria status.

	All women	Number of pregnancies			𝑃-value∗∗
		1	2	≥3
No. of women	1875	604	457	814
Percentage	100%	32.2%	24.4%	43.4%
Age in years
Mean ± SD	29.0±5.1	25.7±4.0	28.0±3.8	32.1±4.6	.0001^+
Malaria Status
% Peripheral blood	17.0	21.7	14.0	15.3	.001∗
% Placental blood	14.2	18.4	11.4	12.8	.002∗
Total % malaria positive#	21.6	27.2	17.9	19.4	<.001∗
Mean parasite density (/𝜇L) in peripheral blood ±SD	456±5563	783.8±5873	494.1±8773	191±1552	NS
Mean parasite density (/𝜇L) placenta ±SD	1093±15321	1504±17589	985±18470	847±10950	NS
Delivery outcome
% Low birth weight	6.8	8.9	6.8	5.3	.026∗
% Preterm delivery	10.0	9.3	10.1	10.5	.71∗

+Wilcoxon rank-sum test; ∗Chi-squared test; #Parasites were detected in the peripheral and/or placental blood. ∗∗Comparisons were between the three categories of number of pregnancies.