Abstract:
Background: Weight at birth is a good indicator of the newborn’s chance for survival, growth and
development, as well as long term health and psychosocial development. Low birth weight
newborns are at a significantly higher risk of morbidity and mortality contributing a lot to the
higher perinatal, neonatal, infant and childhood morbidity and mortality rates specially in the
developing countries like Ethiopia. They are also at a higher risk of adulthood illnesses once they
survive the early complications. Even if many studies have been done on low birth weight, its
associated factors and the short as well as long term outcomes of low birth weight infants in the
developed world, little has been done in developing countries like Ethiopia where the burden of
the problem is huge. In Ethiopia, few studies have been done on the incidence of low birth weight
and associated factors but most of these studies didn’t consider many of the factors thought to
be associated with low birth weight.
Objectives: To determine the incidence of low birth weight and its associated factors in Jimma
University Specialized Hospital.
Methods and materials: A cross sectional study was conducted on 931 newborns who were born
in Jimma University Specialized Hospital from March 1 to May 30, 2014 GC. Data were collected
by using structured questionnaire. Maternal and neonatal anthropometric measurements were
done by using standard beam balance, tape meter and measuring board. Consecutive sampling
technique was used to include all eligible newborns and their mothers until the required sample
size is obtained. p value of <0.05 was used to consider significance.
Results: The mean ( ± SD) of birth weights were 3017 ± 612gm. The incidence of low birth weight
(birth weight <2500) was 24.4%. The factors found to be associated with low birth weight in this
study are female gender, maternal urinary tract infections, preterm delivery, maternal antepartal
hemorrhage, and multiple gestations.
Conclusion and recommendations: The incidence of low birth weight is found to be high in this
study. An attempt to increase the rate of ANC attendance and identifying the medical illnesses asiv
well as obstetric complications and addressing them timely is recommended so that the rate and
complications of low birth weight could be minimized.
