ABSTRACT
Epidemiology is a new, developing branch, the aim of which is to study the distribution and dynamics of diseases in population subgroups delimited locally, temporally, and materially, the causes of diseases and the conditions of their origin, course, duration, and consequences, and to propose practical measures for prevention of the diseases and for maintenance and improvement of health of the society. If the general epidemiologic principles are applied to a special obstetric and neonatologic problem concerning intrauterine growth retardation (IUGR). In the developing countries, however, where some risk factors attain both a high Relative Risk and a high incidence in the population, it is possible to work out an effective scoring system for screening of IUGR. More recently, retrospective studies of different types of antenatal actions, in postnatally verified IUGR cases, have been performed. The high frequency of longer hospitalization for IUGR includes two different subgroups. In one of these, the indication for admission was chiefly preventive.
