Impact of iron‐folic acid supplementation on birth size and birth weight in Pakistan (624.20)

Abstract

Objective To examine the effect of iron‐folic acid (IFA) supplementation on perceived birth size and birth weight using Pakistan DHS 2006‐07.Methods Information from 5,692 most recent (with 5 years) live‐born infants was used. The primary outcomes were perceived birth size and birth weight and the main exposure was any maternal use of IFA during pregnancy. Birth weight was reported for only 10% of live births in PDHS 2006‐07. Analyses used multivariate logistic regression adjusted for X potential confounders and the sampling design.Results The risk of small birth size babies was significantly reduced by 18% (aOR: 0.82, 95% CI 0.71, 0.96, p=0.013) for mothers who used any IFA supplements compared to no IFA use. Mother who started IFA in the first trimester, significantly reduced the risk of small birth size babies by 19%. With antenatal IFA, the risk of low birth weight was significantly reduced by 51% for <2000 grams and non‐significantly by 60% and 18% for <1500 grams and <2500 grams respectively.Conclusion Antenatal IFA supplementation significantly reduced the risk of small birth size and low birth weight babies in Pakistan. The greatest protective effect of antenatal IFA was for infants with birth weight <1500 grams.