Abstract
Though the health situation of Bangladesh has improved substantially over the years, the low birth weight (LBW) rate is still pretty high. The principal focus of this study was to ascertain the significant determinants for LBW. One hundred and eight LBW babies were compared with 357 normal birth weight babies. Out of 20 possible risk variables analyzed, 9 were found significant when studied separately. Mother's age, education, occupation, yearly income, gravid status, gestational age at first visit, number of antenatal care visit attended, quality of antenatal care received and pre-delivery body mass index had significantly associated with the incidence of LBW. Using the stepwise logistic regression, mother's age (p < 0.001), education (p < 0.02), number of antenatal care visit attended (p < 0.001, OR = 29.386) and yearly income (p < 0.001, OR = 3.379) created the best model, which predicted 86.1% and 94.4% of the LBW babies and normal birth weight babies respectively. Maternal age, educational level and economic status play an important role in the incidence of low birth weight.
Highlights
More than 20 million infants worldwide representing 15.5 percent of all births are born with low birth-weight (LBW), 95.6 percent of them born in developing countries
When Chi-square test was done for individual factors, age, education, occupation, per head yearly income, gravid status of mother, gestational age at Ist visit, pre-delivery Body mass index (BMI), quality of antenatal care received and number of antenatal visits attended were found to be significant
LBW (N=108) babies mostly come from the mother of 30 age group [88 (81.5%)], without education [66 (66.1%)], belongs to the family of below average per capita yearly income [9 (85.2%)] (Table I), 1st and 4th or more gravid those started their antenatal care in the last trimester 23 (Table II), and who attended < 4 antenatal visit [96 (88.11)] (Table III)
Summary
More than 20 million infants worldwide representing 15.5 percent of all births are born with low birth-weight (LBW), 95.6 percent of them born in developing countries. Neonatal survival depends on both gestational maturity and birth weight and is not significantly better in babies who are LBW for gestational age[2]. Mortality rates of very low birth weight babies have been shown to be very high in several studies. There is evidence that LBW or it's determinant factors are associated with a predisposition to higher rates of diabetes, cardiac diseases and other future chronic health problems[6,7]. There are more babies with poorer growth having the risk of more diabetic, hypertensive and coronary heart disease patients. With the demographic transition through increased life expectancy at birth, these countries are going to face more burdens of chronic diseases
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