Publication:

Prevalence and correlates of low birth weight babies born in a tertiary care teaching hospital in Eastern India

Background Low birth weight (LBW) is one of the long-standing birth outcomes amongst all adverse pregnancy outcomes, which have lasting influences in the later life span. The objective of the study was to determine the prevalence of LBW babies; to examine the correlation between maternal socio-demographic, lifestyle, obstetrics, and clinical factors with LBW; and to compare the above factors between mothers with low and normal birth weight babies.

Methods All the pregnant women admitted for delivery in the inpatient Department of Gynaecology and Obstetrics and providing informed consent were interviewed with the help of the semi-structured questionnaire. The antenatal card and labour room log book were also scrutinized for relevant data.

Results The prevalence of LBW and VLBW were 33.8% and 2.8% respectively. A significant positive correlation was found between strenuous working environment, duration of standing, consumption of alcohol and smoking in pregnancy, previous history of premature birth and LBW babies, high blood pressure and pre-eclampsia during pregnancy, total weight gain during pregnancy and gestational age at birth and LBW. Mothers of LBW and normal birth weight babies significantly differed in their age, total weight gain during pregnancy, religion, level of education, history of premature baby and LBW baby, high blood pressure and preeclampsia during pregnancy. In the regression model, there was also a significant positive linear relationship between LBW and strenuous work environment & gestational age at birth.

Conclusions One third of the pregnant mothers delivered LBW child and various socio-demographic and clinical factors had significant correlation with LBW.