Table 1

Characteristics of the studies included in the meta-analysis of LBW by world regions

Study	Country, state/region	Type of database	Year of data	Migrants' world regions	No of subgroups	Births	% Migrants
Buekens/1998	Belgium, national	PBR	1981–8	North Africa	2	838972	4.1
Collinwood-Bakeo/2004	UK, national	PBR	1983–2001	Caribbean, East Africa, West Africa, south-central Asia, east Europe, western Europe	55	11401247	8.0
Crump/1999	USA, Washington State	PBR	1989–94	Latin America (Mexico)	2	9572	50.0
David/1997	USA, Illinois State	PBR	1980–95	Sub-Saharan Africa	3	90503	3.5
Fang/1999	USA, New York City	PBR	1988–94	Caribbean, South America, Africa (excl North)	5	269863	35.9
Fuentes-Afflick/1997	USA, California State	PBR	1992	Cambodia, China, India, Korea, Laos, Thailand, Vietnam	8	253592	12.5
Gissler/2003	Sweden, national	PBR	1987–8	Finland	6	140390	23.8
Gould/2003	USA, California State	PBR	1995–7	India, Mexico	4	1057977	42.2
Guendelman/1999	Belgium, national	PBR	1992	North Africa	2	107968	4.3
	France, national	PBS	1995	North Africa	2	11802	5.4
	USA, national	PBR	1995	Latin America (Mexico)	2	3417003	8.4
Johnson/2005	USA, Washington State	PBR	1993–2001	Somalia	3	5398	10.7
Landale/1999	USA, national	PBR	1989–91	Latin America, China, Philippines, Japan	16	2390430	47.8
Madan/2006	USA, national	PBR	1995–2000	India, Latin America (Mexico)	5	6424172	23.1
Rasmussen/1995	Sweden, national	PBR	1978–90	West Europe/north America, east Europe, north Africa/Middle East, sub-Saharan Africa, Latin America	8	1258021	11.3
Rosenberg/2005	USA, New York City	PBR	1996–7	Latin America	12	78042	58.8
Vangen/2002	Norway, national	PBR	1980–95	Pakistan, Vietnam, north Africa	4	820256	1.4
Wingate/2006	USA, national	PBR	1995–9	Latin America (Mexico)	4	2446253	61.5
Total					143	31021461	19.9

HR, hospital record; LBW, low birth weight; PB, population-based; PBR, population-based registry; PBS, population-based survey.