Modeling Determinants of Low Birth Weight for Under Five-Children in Ethiopia

Abstract

Low birth weight (LBW) is a major determinant of morbidity, mortality and disability in infancy and childhood and has a long-term impact on health outcomes in adult life. This study was aimed to model LBW using marginal and generalized linear mixed models as well as identify the potential risk factors of LBW in Ethiopia. Data was taken from the 2011 Ethiopian demographic and health survey, which is a nationally representative survey of children in the 0–59 month age groups. Two model families, generalized estimating equation and alternating logistic regression models from marginal model family, and generalized linear mixed model from cluster specific model family were used for the analysis. The result showed that 34.8% of children were born with LBW. Alternating logistic regression model was best fits the data for population-averaged effects of the given factors on birth weight than generalized estimating equation model. Generalized linear mixed model with two random intercepts was the best model to evaluate within and between regional heterogeneity of birth weight. Both the best-fitted models gave the same conclusion that sex, wealth status, age, antenatal care, marital status, vaccination, anemia and mother education level were the determinant factors of LBW. This study contributes to the understanding of the individual and collective effect of maternal, socio-economic and child related factors influencing infant birth weight in Ethiopia.

Determinants of Low Birth Weight in Indonesia

“…The proportion of LBW decreased along with the increasing level of household wealth of respondents. This finding is in line with other studies that the incidence of LBW is inversely related to wealth quintiles (Trisnawati, Salimo and Murti, 2018;Bekalo et al, 2021). In addition, it is stated that economically well-off families will go to better quality health facilities and be exposed to as much information as possible regarding adequate health during pregnancy, because rich women are easier to educate.…”

“…the lower the mother's education level leads to a greater chance of giving birth to LBW babies. This finding corroborates other studies investigating factors associated with LBW, highlighting the importance of socioeconomic conditions, especially with regard to the education level of mothers or their families (Trisnawati, Salimo and Murti, 2018;Falcão et al, 2020;Mulu et al, 2020;Bekalo et al, 2021). Maternal education level is associated with better knowledge of nutrition and generally understanding and adhering to health professional recommendations during pregnancy (Falcão et al, 2020).…”

“…The estimated OR for LBW was found to increase with a decrease in the number of prenatal visits, indicating the importance of prenatal care. Less provision of prenatal care, characterized by a lower number of visits, has been associated with negative perinatal outcomes, such as low birth weight (Mahumud, Sultana and Sarker, 2017;Belfort et al, 2018;Falcão et al, 2020;Mulu et al, 2020;Bekalo et al, 2021). Mothers who perform ANC at least 4 times, tend to be less likely to experience LBW births.…”

Modeling of the determinants of Low-birth weight among children in Uganda

“…The association between low birth weight and the rich was statistically significant with p -the value of 0.008, 0.004 for the richer and richest respectively. The findings of this study are similar to the findings of the study by Bekalo et al, (2021) in Ethiopia which was intended to model the low birth weight with marginalized linear mixed models where the odds for the likelihood of obtaining low birth weight infants for rich mothers was 0.7188 times lower compared to poor mothers, and this reflected that the probability of low birth weight was lower by 28% for mothers from a rich family as compared to the mothers from poor families. The p-value above 0.05 (not statistically significant) implied that the estimated model adequately fits the data.…”

“…These babies were more likely not to survive during their initial month of life and those who survived faced lifetime consequences plus a higher risk of stunted growth (Wardlaw et al, 2020). The prevalence of low birth weight in Sub-Saharan Africa ranges between 13 and 15%, with a slight difference across the entire region and in East Africa the prevalence of low birth weight is 13.5% (Bekalo et al, 2021). According to a study conducted in some rural parts of Uganda by Bater et al, 2020, Low birth weight is one of the critical issues in Uganda that causes short-term and long-term health consequences among babies and tends to have higher mortality and morbidity.…”