Perinatal facors associated with strabismus in Negro children.

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Abstract
In the study, 406 Negro children with diagnosed strabismus, born in Maryland since 1950, and birth certificate controls matched by race, sex, plurality, age of mother, hospital, and date of delivery, were studied retrospectively. Children with other diagnosed neurological conditions were excluded from the case group. The cases were generally characterized by lower birthweights than the controls. The lower birthweight of the strabismic babies was associated with shorter pregnancies, possibly Indicating that the strabismic babies were immature rather than undersized. These children were not undersized relative to control infants born after gestational periods of the same length. Strabismic infants weighed less even when gravidity was controlled, a result which suggests that strabismus is directly associated with birthweight. The mothers of strabismic children had no more complications of pregnancy and delivery than the control mothers. They were the women delivering premature infants without recognizable cause. They had suffered more previous pregnancy loss (abortion or stillbirth) than control mothers of similar gravidity. A significantly higher proportion of strabismic infants than controls evidenced major abnormalities at birth or shortly thereafter, especially respiratory conditions causing anoxia. A majority of the abnormalities among subjects and controls were those usually associated with prematurity, a finding re-emphasizing the importance of the relationship between prematurity and childhood morbidity.