• Bmc Pregnancy Childb · Oct 2015

    Risk factors for low birth weight in Bale zone hospitals, South-East Ethiopia : a case-control study.

    • Habtamu Demelash, Achenif Motbainor, Dabere Nigatu, Ketema Gashaw, and Addisu Melese.
    • Department of Public Health, College of Medicine and Health Sciences, Madawalabu University, Bale, Goba, Ethiopia. hab2396@yahoo.com.
    • Bmc Pregnancy Childb. 2015 Oct 13; 15: 264.

    BackgroundLow birth weight (LBW) is closely associated with foetal and neonatal mortality and morbidity, inhibite growth and cognitive development and resulted chronic diseases later in life. Many factors affect foetal growth and thus, the birth weight. These factors operate to various extents in different environments and cultures. The prevalence of low birth weight in the study area is the highest in the country. To the investigator's knowledge in Bale Zone, no study has yet been done to elucidate the risk factors for low birth weight using case control study design. This study was aimed to identify the risk factors of low birth weight in Bale zone hospitals.MethodsA case-control study design was applied from April 1st to August 30th, 2013. A total of 387 mothers (136 cases and 272 controls) were interviewed using structured and pretested questionnaire by trained data collectors working in delivery ward. For each case, two consecutive controls were included in the study. All cases and controls were mothers with singleton birth, full term babies, no diabetes mellitus and no hypertensive. The data were entered and analyzed using SPSS version 16.0 statistical package. The association between the independent variables and dependent variable (birth weight) was evaluated through bivariate and multiple logistic regression analyses.ResultMaternal age at delivery <20 years (adjusted odds ratio (AOR) = 3; 95% confidence interval (CI) = 1.65-5.73), monthly income <26 United States Dollarr (USD) (AOR = 3.8; 95% CI = 1.54-9.41), lack of formal education (AOR = 6; 95% CI = 1.34-26.90), being merchant (AOR = 0.1; 95%CI = 0.02-0.52) and residing in rural area (AOR = 2.1; 95% CI = 1.04-4.33) were socio-economic variables associated with low birth weight. Maternal risk factors like occurrence of health problems during pregnancy (AOR = 6.3; 95% CI = 2.75-14.48), maternal body mass index <18 kg/m2 (AOR = 6.7; 95% CI = 1.21-37.14), maternal height <1.5m (AOR = 3.7; 95% CI = 1.22-11.28), inter-pregnancy interval <2 years (AOR = 3; 95% CI = 1.58-6.31], absence of antenatal care (OR = 2.9; 95% CI = 1.23-6.94) and history of khat chewing (AOR = 6.4; 95% CI = 2.42-17.10) and environmental factors such as using firewood for cooking (AOR = 2.7; 95% CI = 1.01-7.17), using kerosene for cooking (AOR = 8.9; 95% CI = 2.54-31.11), wash hands with water only (AOR = 2.2; 95% CI = 1.30-3.90) and not having separate kitchen room (AOR = 2.6; 95% CI = 1.36-4.85) were associated with low birth weight.ConclusionWomen who residing in rural area, faced health problems during current pregnancy, had no antenatal care follow-up and use firewood as energy source were found to be more likely to give low birth weight babies. Improving a mother's awareness and practice for a healthy pregnancy needs to be emphasized to reverse LBW related problems.

      Pubmed     Free full text   Copy Citation     Plaintext  

      Add institutional full text...

    Notes

     
    Knowledge, pearl, summary or comment to share?
    300 characters remaining
    help        
    You can also include formatting, links, images and footnotes in your notes
    • Simple formatting can be added to notes, such as *italics*, _underline_ or **bold**.
    • Superscript can be denoted by <sup>text</sup> and subscript <sub>text</sub>.
    • Numbered or bulleted lists can be created using either numbered lines 1. 2. 3., hyphens - or asterisks *.
    • Links can be included with: [my link to pubmed](http://pubmed.com)
    • Images can be included with: ![alt text](https://bestmedicaljournal.com/study_graph.jpg "Image Title Text")
    • For footnotes use [^1](This is a footnote.) inline.
    • Or use an inline reference [^1] to refer to a longer footnote elseweher in the document [^1]: This is a long footnote..

    hide…