Magnitude and associated factors of low birth weight among term newborns delivered in Addis Ababa public hospitals, Ethiopia, 2021

Abstract

Background: Low birth weight (LBW) accounts for 60% to 80% of all neonatal deaths each year. In developing countries like Ethiopia, low birth weight is a major public health concern. Almost half of the world's infants are not weighed at birth, a gure that is especially high in Sub-Saharan Africa including Ethiopia. Only 14% of births had information on birth weight were available at the time of birth in Ethiopia. So previous studies underestimate the magnitude and associated factors of low birth weight. As a result, the goal of this study is to ll those gaps in the previous studies by assessing the magnitude and associated factors of low birth weight in Addis Ababa.Methods: An institution-based cross-sectional study was employed. Systematic sampling was used to select 351 study participants. A pre-tested and structured questionnaire was used to collect data. The data were entered, cleaned, and edited using Epi-data version 3.1 and exported to SPSS version 20 software packages for analysis. Both bivariate and multiple logistic regression were used to identify associated factors. A p-value of <0.05 was declared as a statistically signi cant association.

Prevalence of Low Birth Weight and its Association With Anemia in White Nile State, Sudan: A Cross-Sectional Study

“…The prevalence (15.8%) of LBW in the current study is comparable to the prevalence of LBW reported for Eastern Sudan (15.3%; Adam et al, 2008) and Darfur, Western Sudan (14.9%; Haggaz et al, 2010). However, the prevalence was slightly higher than that reported for Khartoum, Sudan (12.1%; Bilal et al, 2022), Wad Medani (Central Sudan: 12.6%; Elhassan et al, 2010), Addis Ababa, Ethiopia (13.06%; Tadesse et al, 2023), Ghana (13.5%; Ahenkorah et al, 2022), and Tanzania (21%; Kamala et al, 2018). A pooled prevalence of 5.7% for LBW was recently reported in the Demographic and Health Survey of Saharan African countries, which enrolled 33,585 newborns (Weyori et al, 2022).…”

“…Another notable finding of the current study was that maternal anemia increased the risk of LBW by 4.7 times. Several studies have also reported similar findings for other regions of Sudan and Africa—Wad Mani in Central Sudan ( Elhassan et al, 2010 ), Kassala in Eastern Sudan ( Ali et al, 2011 ), Darfur in Western Sudan ( Haggaz et al, 2010 ), Ethiopia ( Deriba and Jemal, 2021 ; Tadesse et al, 2023 ), Somalia ( Barut and Mohamud, 2023 ), Sierra Leone ( Kargbo et al, 2021 ), Uganda ( Odongkara et al, 2022 ), and Ghana ( Mohammed et al, 2019 ). This association was further corroborated by several meta-analyses that have shown that anemic pregnant women are at a higher risk of delivering newborns with LBW ( Rahman et al, 2016 ; Young et al, 2019 , 2023 ).…”

“…Despite continuing preventive measures, there is still a high prevalence of LBW in different countries in the sub-Saharan African region, including Sudan ( Adam et al, 2008 ; Ahenkorah et al, 2022 ; Ahmed, 2022 ; Barut and Mohamud, 2023 ; Elhassan et al, 2010 ; Haggaz et al, 2010 ; Kamala et al, 2018 ; Kargbo et al, 2021 ; Odongkara et al, 2022 ; Tadesse et al, 2023 ; Wondemagegn et al, 2022 ). Several maternal factors, such as age ( Odongkara et al, 2022 ), parity, level of antenatal care (ANC; Kamala et al, 2018 ), anemia ( Barut and Mohamud, 2023 ; Kargbo et al, 2021 ; Odongkara et al, 2022 ; Tadesse et al, 2023 ), malarial infection ( Odongkara et al, 2022 ), and malnutrition ( Ahmed, 2022 ; Wondemagegn et al, 2022 ), as well as the neonate's gestational age ( Ahenkorah et al, 2022 ; Ahmed, 2022 ), are reportedly associated with LBW in sub-Saharan Africa.…”