Risk Factors Associated with Low Birth Weight among Deliveries at Bharatpur Hospital

Abstract

Background: Babies with a birth weight of less than 2500 grams, irrespective of the period of their gestation are termed as Low Birth Weight (LBW) babies. Despite consistent efforts to improve the quality of maternal and child health, more than twenty million low birth-weight (LBW) babies are born every year throughout the world. Though, the health situation of Nepal has improved substantially over the years, the low birth-weight (LBW) rate is still high. The objective of this study was to assess the proportion of low birth weight and identify the associated factors for low birth weight in a live born infant among the institutionally delivered newborns. Methods:A hospital based cross sectional study was conducted in Obstetrics and Gynaecology ward of Bharatpur hospital, Bharatpur, from 17 th September to 4 th October , 2012. Altogether 480 respondents were taken and respondents were mothers who had delivered newborns in Bharatpur hospital.Results: A total of 480 births occurred during the study period, of which 480 met the study criteria. Among which 9.4% were low birth weight and 90.6% were normal birth weight .Overall mean birth weight was found to be 2.96 kg. Out of total 9.4% newborns were weighing less than 2.50 kg and mean birth weight 2.96kg. Conclusions:This study suggests that there were several factors interplaying which lead to LBW babies; which are age of mother at delivery,weight gain by mother during pregnancy, short, low body mass index and hyperemesis gravidarum was the strongest predictor in this study.

Prevalence of low birth weight and its associated factor at birth in Sub-Saharan Africa: A generalized linear mixed model

“…The pooled analysis from 35 SSA countries showed that the overall prevalence of LBW was 9.47%, with variations among African regions ranged from 8.9% in eastern Africa to 10.3% in Southern Africa. In addition, variations also observed between countries ranged from 6.3% in Guinea to 16.21% in Ethiopia, as shown in Fig 1. This was consistent with the results of systematic and meta-analysis findings in Iran (9%) [20], Nepal (9.4%) [19], and Ghana (9.69%) [21]. However, this work finding was lower than those studies in Kenya (12.3%) [12], selected African countries such as Burkina Faso, Ghana, Malawi, Senegal, and Uganda was, respectively, 13.4%, 10.2%, 12.1%, 15.7% and 10% [22], and systematic and meta-analysis results in Ethiopia (18%) [16].…”

“…Independent variables. Potential risk factors for LBW were included based on the literature review [4,11,12,16,18,19], we included two types of variables in the analysis. Level one variable (individual-level variables) that is maternal and husband education (has no education, primary education and secondary and above, no education means respondents cannot read and write or had no any formal education), maternal age, mother marital status, household wealth index, maternal occupation status, women health care decision making autonomy, media exposure, number of antenatal care (ANC) visit, preceding birth interval, parity…”

Low birth weight and its associated risk factors: Health facility-based case-control study

“…The prevalence of LBW in Nepal ranges from 12% to 21.6%, [13][14][15]. A few descriptive and hospital-based case-control studies have been done in Nepal [14][15][16][17][18][19]. These descriptive and hospital-based studies could not represent the risk factors of LBW at the community level as these studies had taken participants from hospitals only.…”

Predictors of Low Birth Weight at Lumbini Provincial Hospital, Nepal: A Hospital-Based Unmatched Case Control Study

“…Previous studies conducted in Nepal have shown that the prevalence of low birth weight ranges from 9.4% to 21.6% [13][14][15]. Furthermore, the UNICEF and WHO estimate prevalence of low birth weight in Nepal to be 21.8% which is third highest in the world [2].…”