Determinants of low birth weight in Kembata Tembaro Zone Health facilities in SNNPR Ethiopia, Case Control study.

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.