Association between maternal socio-demographic factors and low birth weight newborn in a rural area of Bihar, India

Abstract

Low birth weight (LBW) is an important cause of perinatal, neonatal and post-natal morbidity and mortality. In developing countries, LBW of newborns is mainly due to the poor socio-economic and environmental conditions of the mother. The aim of the study was to identify and quantify the effects of age, religion, socio-economic status and occupation of mothers, in order to examine which factors were primarily responsible for LBW of babies. In this study, all singleton newborn having a weight of <2.5kg was included as a case and a weight of ≥2.5kg was included as a control. The relation of birth-weight to few maternal factors such as age, socio-economic status, religion and occupation were studied. A total of 120 cases and 240 controls were selected. After selection of each case as defined, the next available two newborns that had fulfilled the criteria for controls given above were selected and included in the control group. This ensured a case:control ratio of 1:2. Our Study showed that the greatest number of mothers having LBW newborns were in the age group of 21 to 25 years (50% and 45.1% in both the cases and control groups respectively), belonged to socio-economic group V (42.5% and 40% in both groups respectively) and were Hindus (96.7% and 89.6% in both groups respectively). It was found that 70% of LBW babies were born to mothers who belonged to the labor class by occupation. This study concluded with the findings that maternal factors like age, socio-economic status, religion and occupation of the mothers were related to LBW of the newborns. Avoiding teenage pregnancies, improving the socio-economic status (SES) of people and providing better working

Semiparametric Multinomial Ordinal Model to Analyze Spatial Patterns of Child Birth Weight in Nigeria

“…Our report corroborated the study on the adverse effect of poor maternal socio-economic factors on low birth weight in India and Sub-Saharan Africa [28,29]. …”

A cross sectional study for utilisation of antenatal care services and its association to birth weight of babies in a tertiary care centre in Western India

“…4 Similar studies conducted across India had nearly the same magnitude of prevalence of LBW ranging from 14% to 36%. [5][6][7][8][9] Metgud et al in a study in Karnataka, identified maternal illiteracy, exposure to passive smoking, maternal age, weight gain during pregnancy, high risk pregnancy and late antenatal registration as the risk factors significantly associated with the birth weight of a newborn. 7 Noor et al performed similar study in Madhya Pradesh and found that gestational age and parity were the important maternal parameters influencing the birth weight of the child.…”

Nutritional Risk Factors of Low Birth Weight Among poor Rural Mothers from Maharashtra, India.

“…The factors responsible for LBW range from socio demographic to genetic, illustrating a wide spectrum of underlying causes. Several socioeconomic, demographic, obstetric and dietary factors have been shown to influence birth weight [16,17,18,19] but only few researchers have examined their association with risk of LBW [20,21]. In order to have effective strategies to combat the problem of LBW, it may be necessary to look into the nutritional risk factors.…”