What has high fertility got to do with the low birth weight problem in Africa?

Kodzi, Ivy; Kravdal, Øystein

doi:10.4054/demres.2013.28.25

Cited by 6 publications

(11 citation statements)

References 53 publications

(50 reference statements)

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“…A recent study had reported that an underweight mother had a higher risk of giving birth to an underweight baby. Our result corroborates the recent study by Kodzi et al [25]. A meta-analysis study further gave evidence that the children born of underweight tend to have cognitive disabilities and a lower intelligence quotient [26].…”

Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 93%

Semiparametric Multinomial Ordinal Model to Analyze Spatial Patterns of Child Birth Weight in Nigeria

Adeyemi

Zewotir

Ramroop

2016

IJERPH

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Abstract:Background: Birth weight is an important health parameter for obstetricians and gynaecologists. It is a good health indicator of a child-bearing mother and a strong predictor of infant morbidity and mortality. Methods: This paper utilizes data on 28,647 children born between 2003-2008 obtained from the 2008 Nigeria Demographic and Health Survey (NDHS). For a simple epidemiological convenience, the occurrence of a newborn weight can intuitively be considered to be categorical in nature and the thresholds can be put on a continuous scale. In survey reporting, the mothers frequently estimate their infant's birth weight and make a classification in ordinal category (low, normal, large) instead of actual birth weight. The study fits a multinomial regression model to analyze the relationships between the polytomous response and different kind of covariates in a unified manner. We estimate the fixed effects of bio-social covariates parametrically and the non-linear effect modeled using P-spline. The spatial component was modeled using conditional autoregressive error. A penalized maximum likelihood estimation was performed to estimate the model parameters. Results: We found risk factors that are positively associated with low birth weight, which include multiple birth, short birth interval, death of sibling, childhood diarrhea, fever, mother's smoking, firewood/dung cooking and poor household. Results further showed that iron syrup supplementation, antenatal attendance, mother literacy and household wealth had significant association with low probability of low birth weight. The finding also showed spatial patterns, which are not captured by the underlying determinants, and we produced probability predictive maps of the spatial residual effects. Conclusions: In addition to the statistical relevance of our method, the generated spatial maps identify highly endemic areas of low birth weight that can assist government agency to channel scarce health resources. A comprehensive approach which institutes a combination of interventions to improve the overall health care of the women is needed.

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Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 93%

Semiparametric Multinomial Ordinal Model to Analyze Spatial Patterns of Child Birth Weight in Nigeria

Adeyemi

Zewotir

Ramroop

2016

IJERPH

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“…For the first born children, there is no significant difference in the risk of infant mortality across the agegroups. For the second born children, the risk of infant mortality is higher for the 15-17 year old mothers (RR 1.69, 95% CI: 1.36-2.09) compared to the reference age group (25)(26)(27)(28)(29) year olds), and slightly higher for the [18][19] year old mothers (1.24, 95% CI 1.04-1.48; Table 3). Finally, for the third or higher order births, the risk of infant mortality for children born to 15-17and 18-19 year old mothers are RR 1.50 (95% CI: 1.04-2.18) and 1.40 (95% CI 1.13-1.73), respectively ( Table 3) (Figure 2a).…”

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 98%

“…group (25)(26)(27)(28)(29) year olds) (Figure 2a). For the 15-17 year old mothers, the relative risk is 1.38 (95% CI: 1.25-1.53), and for the [18][19] year olds the relative risk of infant mortality is 1.24 (95% CI: 1.13-1.37) ( Table 3).…”

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…What we wanted to highlight was this mediating effect of birth intervals, and that when we think of young women with more than one child we think of short birth intervals as the number of years of exposure in their reproductive years is short (say four years from [15][16][17][18][19] compared to a woman across her entire reproductive years 15-39. In the end, with this model, we can say that age and parity matter for child health outcomes, independent of the effect of short birth intervals on child health, and that short birth intervals may attenuate the direct negative effect of maternal age and parity on child health outcomes, but not completely offset it.…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Research investigating the influence of parity on child health outcomes indicates that first born and extremely high parity children are at greatest risk of poor outcomes [18][19][20].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Adolescent Fertility and Child Health: The Interaction of Maternal Age, Parity and Birth Intervals in Determining Child Health Outcomes

Finlay

Norton

Guevara

2017

Int. J. Child Health Nutr.

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Introduction: Contributing to the Sustainable Development Goals, Global Goals, Global Strategy for Women's, Children's and Adolescents' Health 2016-2030, we clarify the interaction between maternal age, parity and birth intervals to examine the effects on child health. Methods:We use Demographic and Health Survey data from 33 sub-Saharan African countries, and apply multivariate Poisson and logistic models to first examine the effect of maternal age (15-17, 18-19, 20-24, 25-29, 30-39) on infant mortality and stunting, then modify this relationship by parity and account for the confounding effects of short birth intervals.Results: We find that poor infant mortality outcomes of children born to teen mothers are driven by higher parity children, not first-born children. While first-born children of teen mothers are at a high risk of stunting, they are likely to survive. Short birth intervals have a negative effect on infant survival and stunting outcomes. But controlling for short birth intervals does not completely offset the effect of young age at birth on child survival outcomes.Discussion: High parity children of young mothers are at a high risk of infant mortality, driven in part -but not completely -by short birth intervals. Policies aimed at delaying first birth are warranted, but should not overshadow the need to support adolescent mothers at risk of multiple births that are tightly spaced.

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The Untold Story of 50 Years of Adolescent Fertility in West Africa: A Cohort Perspective on the Quantum, Timing, and Spacing of Adolescent Childbearing

Garbett¹,

Perelli‐Harris²,

Neal³

2021

Population & Development Rev

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Although recent studies examine overall fertility trends in West Africa, few using advanced demographic techniques focus on adolescents. This study explores long-term patterns of adolescent childbearing in 12 West African countries using 51 Demographic and Health Surveys covering birth cohorts that span 54 years (1940-1994). We employ classic demographic measures as well as disaggregation by early-(10-14 years old), middle-(15-17), and late adolescence (18-19). Cohort-based estimates of total adolescent births, parity progression ratios, and rapid repeat birth probabilities reveal little change over time. Most women begin childbearing in adolescence, the progression to additional adolescent births remains common, and the incidence of rapid repeat births is high. In recent cohorts, women exit adolescence with an average of between 0.4 (Ghana) to 1.3 (Niger) births. Contrary to common assumptions, it is women commencing motherhood in early-and middle-, not later adolescence, who account for most West African adolescent fertility.

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What has high fertility got to do with the low birth weight problem in Africa?

Cited by 6 publications

References 53 publications

Semiparametric Multinomial Ordinal Model to Analyze Spatial Patterns of Child Birth Weight in Nigeria

Semiparametric Multinomial Ordinal Model to Analyze Spatial Patterns of Child Birth Weight in Nigeria

Adolescent Fertility and Child Health: The Interaction of Maternal Age, Parity and Birth Intervals in Determining Child Health Outcomes

The Untold Story of 50 Years of Adolescent Fertility in West Africa: A Cohort Perspective on the Quantum, Timing, and Spacing of Adolescent Childbearing

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