A Case-Control Study on Low birth weight and Associated Epidemiological Determinants among Tribal Population of Dahod, Gujarat

Abstract

Background: The healthy future of society depends on the today’s children and their mother’s health. Low birthweight (LBW) is a valuable public health indicator of maternal health, nutrition, healthcare delivery. So, a casecontrolstudy was planned to assess the local scenario of district.Objectives: To study the epidemiological determinants like socio-demographic, maternal, socioeconomic,environmental factors and Antenatal care (ANC) package utilization related to low birth weight.Methodology:A Case- control study was carried out at tertiary care hospital, Dahod. We had selected 150 casesand equal number of controls for present study.Results:The results showed that factors like kachha house (OR=1.82), chulha as kitchen fuel (OR=1.76), illiteracy(OR=2.85), labourer (OR=3.57), age above 30 years (OR=2.81), short stature (OR=12.95), less prepregnancyweight (OR=3.04), less body mass index (OR=1.84), less weight gain during pregnancy (OR=2.11)(OR=4.82) ,less interpregnancy interval (OR=1.16), less maternal age at time of marriage (OR=2.67) , later registration ofpregnancy (OR= 5.17), less than 4 Antenatal care (ANC) visits(OR= 2.29), less Iron folic acid (OR=2.70) andcalcium supplementation (OR=2.18) than recommended and no utilization of take- home ration from anganwadicenter (OR=2.18) were significantly associated with the risk of low birth weight babies.Conclusion: Study provides local scenario of district as various epidemiological determinants are more prone forLBW. The best way is to act at grass root level, firstly from health care side by strengthening the available services andengaging every beneficiary and secondly from pregnant women and family side by educating and motivating them.