Maternal dietary and nutritional characteristics as predictor of newborn birth weight in Jimma Town, Southwest Ethiopia, 2017

Abstract

Maternal nutrition plays a major role in influencing fetal growth and birth outcomes. It is a modifiable risk factor which drags a significant public health consideration to avert adverse birth outcomes, specially, in low and middle income countries. Suboptimal dietary and nutritional characteristics and low birth weight are prevalent in the present study setting. This study was conducted to assess the association of maternal dietary and nutritional characteristics and newborn birth weight among pregnant mother who delivered in health institutions. Institution based cross sectional study was conducted among 541 pregnant mothers who delivered in Health Institutions of Jimma Town from March 1st, 2017 to April 30th, 2017. Data were entered into EPI data version 3.1 and analyzed using SPSS for windows, version 20.0; SPSS. Bivariate analysis was used to assess the association between birth weight and list of independent variables and to test significance of the association at p-value <0.25 for multivariable linear regression. Multivariable linear regression model was used to recognize the important predictors by controlling for possible confounding variables and statistical significance was measured at p-value <0.05. Majority of newborns had normal birth weight (91.0%). The mean birth weight of the newborns was 3224.6 ± 438.5 grams while low birth weight was 2%. In Multivariable linear regression analyses, birth weight was found to have increased by 13.5 grams (β=13.5, P=0.04), for every centimeter increment in maternal mid-upper arm circumference (MUAC). Similarly, with each increase in parity of the mother an increase in birth weight increased by 96.81 grams (β=96.81, P=0.01) was observed. Wealth index was also found to have a positive association with birth weight (β=49.04, P=0.01). Maternal MUAC, parity and wealth index were found to have a positive association with birth weight. Intervention directed on nutrition of pregnant mothers through nutrition counseling should be the major priority in addition to economic measure.

Maternal Anthropometry and Dietary Diversity Associated with Birth Weight in Maternity Hospitals in Abidjan (Côte d’Ivoire)

“…These results indicate 7.6% and 5.5% respectively of LBW and excess birth weight. Similar results have been reported in other countries in Africa within the same population type [11,13,28].…”

“…The well-being index in this study had no significant influence on baby weight at birth as in the work of Tabrizi and Saraswathi [17] in Iran and Atuahene et al [44] in Ghana. Nevertheless, results contrary to ours have been observed elsewhere [12,13].…”

“…This could be consistent with the characteristics of women in this study with the exception of gestational diabetes. On the other hand, the prevalence of excess birth weight ranging from 7 to 14.8% higher than ours, were found in other countries in Africa [11,13,28,39].…”

“…One could then say that education contributes to the knowledge of the importance of a diversified diet. In short, nutritional status including maternal nutrition strongly influences birth weight [10,12,13]. Therefore, the challenge for the health authorities of these public health facilities is to develop strategies that would improve access to information on dietary diversification during antenatal care (ANC) visit for women of reproductive age, particularly pregnant women.…”

“…The use of the women dietary diversity score (WDDS) as a tool for assessing maternal dietary intake and its relationship to pregnancy outcomes has been explored by several authors [10][11][12][13] but with divergent results. Indeed, as modifiable risk factors, the study of eating habits often associated with increased risks of adverse outcomes of pregnancy [14,15], can be integrated into pregnant women health care.…”