Abstract:
Background
Birth weight plays an important role in infant mortality and morbidity, development, and future health of
the child. Weight at birth is directly influenced by general level of the status of the mother, but, little
information is known on identifying determining factors of term low birth weight. Therefore, this study is
aimed to assess the determinants of low birth weight among term neonates in health facilities of Kmbata
Tembaro Zone, SNNP Ethiopia.
Objective: the objective of the research was to assess the determinant factors associated with low birth
weight in kambata Tembaro Zone
Methods: Institution-based case control study was conducted among mother-newborn pairs.
Cases and controls were selected consecutively from health facilities. Term Neonates born with
birth weight less than 2500 gm were grouped into cases and those term neonates with weight
greater or equal to 2500 were grouped as Controls. The sample size was computed by using open
Epi version 2.3 by considering the following assumptions; a ratio of controls to cases 4:1, power
80%, confidence level 95%, and precision level 5%, odds ratio of 3.3 and percentage of control
exposed 9.1%. Data were entered using Epidata version 3.1 and exported to SPSS version 20 for
analysis. Bi variant and multivariate analyses were done to get candidate variables. Then, the
adjusted odd ratio was used to determine strength of the association and the corresponding
confidence interval was used to determine statistical significant between the explanatory and
outcome variables.
Results: A total of 282 mothers (57 cases and 225 controls) were included .Only household food
in-security (AOR= 6.74; 95% CI(2.78-16.36).Sex of neonates(AOR=2.74;95%CI(1.24-6.05)
Iron supplementation (AOR=9.71;95%CI(3.51-26.88) ,additional food during pregnancy
(AOR=5.49 ;95%CI (2.49,12.11) and anemia AOR=3.51;95%CI(1.56-7.85) were significantly
associated with LBW at term. However, no significant association was observed between
Number of antenatal care visits and Morbidity related factors with low birth weight.
Conclusion and Recommendation: Modifiable factors such as additional food intake, Iron, and
food insecurity were significantly associated with low birth weight at term. Therefore, public
health interventions targeting on antenatal additional dietary advice and iron intake and giving
special emphasis for food in secured women during pregnancy is recommended to reduce LBW
at term in this setup.
