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Background: Low birth weight is a challenging public health problem, which has wide range of both short-and long-term consequences particularly in developing countries. Although several studies have been conducted in different countries including Ethiopia, most of the studies did not consider the food security status, environmental-related and maternal dietary diversity-related factors. Therefore, this study aimed to identify contextual determinant factors of low birth weight. Method: A facility-based unmatched case-control study design was employed among 84 cases and 168 controls in selected public health facilities of the Silte Zone. Cases were newborns with birth weight less than 2500gm and controls were newborns with birth weight greater than 2500gm. The data were collected using a semi-structured, pretested interviewer-administered questionnaire. Multivariable logistic regression analysis was carried out to identify independent determinants of low birth weight with a p-value <0.05. Results: The mean birth weight was 2154.94gm ± 233.43 gm SD for cases and 3022.92gm ± 311.88 gm for controls. Mothers who did not receive iron and folate supplementation during pregnancy (

Globally, anemia affected 1.62 billion people; of these, 56 million anemia cases were found in pregnant women. Anemia is a global public health problem that affects both developing and industrialized countries with major consequences of social and economic burdens. This study set out to determine the prevalence of anemia and its associated factors among pregnant women attending Antenatal Care at public hospitals in Jowhar district, South Somalia. A total of 376 study respondents were included in the study. Structured questionnaires and laboratory investigation was used to collect data. Data were analyzed using binary and multivariable logistic regression. The significance of the association was declared at a p-value < 0.05. The overall prevalence of anemia was 53.1%. Most of the participants were mild anemic (36.53%). The mean hemoglobin concentration of pregnant women was 10.7 ± 2.0 g/dl. In second trimester of pregnancy (AOR=0.32, 95%CI=0.12-0.83), taking meal less than two times per day (AOR=4.80, 95%CI=1.41-16.36), rare meat (AOR= 43.07, 95%CI=2.56-73.50) and fruit (AOR= 6.01, 95%CI= 1.05-34.33) consumption and lack of iron folic supplementation (AOR= 10.06, 95%CI= 1.51-67.05) were significantly associated with anemia among pregnant women. Findings indicated that more than half (53.1%) of the pregnant women were anemic, which is a severe public health problem according to WHO classifications. Therefore, the Federal Ministry of Health and its counterpart in Hir-Shabelle State should work together to tackle anemia through nutrition education and folic iron supplementation.

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