Prevalence of Low Birth Weight (LBW) and Associated Maternal Factors in a Tertiary Hospital in Gombe Metropolis, Nigeria

Aim: This study was aimed at determining the prevalence of Low Birth Weight (LBW) and its association with some maternal factors in the study area.

Materials and Methods: A cross sectional study of 108 consenting and parturient mothers who had their antenatal bookings and singleton baby live deliveries in the State Specialist Hospital Gombe, Nigeria; was conducted in the month of August 2016. The mother-neonate pairs were selected using purposive sampling technique and key variables of interest about the subjects were harvested on structured pro-forma. Simple descriptive statistics were computed, Chi square and two-sided Fisher’s Exact Test (FET) were used to test association between Birth Weight (BW) and some maternal factors. Level of significance was set at P<0.05.

Results: Majority (85.2%) of the mothers who aged between 15 and 40 years (23.90+6.327) were below the age of 31. Most of them were housewives (77.8%) and 75.0% were Hausa-Fulani by tribe. Eighty (74.1%) of them had parity and gravidity of <4 and <5 respectively. Fifty-three of the infants (49.1%) had Low Birth Weight (LBW) and a mean of 2.54±0.641kg. About a quarter of the mothers (25, 23.1%) had a Body Mass Index (BMI) of <18.50 kg/m2while well over a half (65) of them had low Packed Cell Volumes (PCVs) (<33%). When Birth Weight (BW) was cross tabulated against various maternal parameters, significant association could only be found with maternal weight (P = 0.000) and BMI (P=0.000).

Conclusion: A very high prevalence of LBW (49.1%) related to a compromised maternal nutritional status as indicated by poor BMI and weight indicators is quite worrisome. Although this might require further confirmation by more rigorous large sample-size multicentre follow up studies, this finding calls for the institution of effective intervention measures by all concerned authorities.