Study of morbidity, mortality and survival of low birth weight babies born in a tertiary care hospital Vadodara Gujarat

Abstract

Introduction: The birth weight of an infant is strongly conditioned by health and nutritional status of mother and is an important determinant of survival, healthy growth and development of the newborn. Low Birth Weight has been defined by World Health Organization as weight at birth of less than 2500 grams. Materials and Methods: 252 babies having birth weight between 2.0 Kg to 2.5 Kg born during August 2012 to January 2013 in Jamnabai Hospital of Vadodara city were included in this prospective study of six month for assessing Survival rate and morbidity among them. Results: All 249 babies (3 drop out), who were followed up 6 months survived. Prevalence rate (sick babies) varied from 17.27 % to 41.2 %, Prevalence rate (Morbidity) varied from 18.07 % to 42.4%. Common morbidities were fever, cough, cold, diarrhea, vomiting, rash. Babies who were fully immunized had lesser morbidity compared to babies who were not fully immunized. Conclusion: The 6 months prospective study which was carried out on small sample of specific group of babies in Urban area has value that it reflects the situation of babies in middle and lower middle class families.