Effect of Mother's Health on Low Birth Weight in Utter Pradesh State of India

INTRODUCTION:  Birth weight is a strong predictor of an individual baby's survival. In general, lower the weight, the higher a baby's risk of death. Birth weight is usually divided for analysis into "low birth weight (LBW)" and "normal" birth weight. Low birth weight is associated with poor outcomes later in life. If LBW is caused by either preterm delivery or fetal growth retardation, then LBW is presumably completely preventable. Thus, LBW provides a target for interventions to improve infant survival. The prevention of LBW may be an explicit part of public health policy to decrease infant mortality.  Hypothesis: It is hypothesized that mothers with low nutritional status are more likely to deliver a baby with low birth weight. Objective: To investigate the association between mothers nutritional status and low birth weight in Utter Pradesh. Data Source: The National Family Health Survey-3 (NFHS-3) data conducted during 2005-06 is used for analysis purpose. 

METHODS: Birth weight will be used as dependent variable. “Low birth weight” means children weighted less than 2.5 kilogrammes otherwise normal birth weight. To fulfill the proposed objective appropriate bi-variate and multivariable analysis will be carried out. Body Mass Index (BMI), anaemia level and other important socio-economic characteristics will be considered for analysis. The BMI is defined as weight in kilograms divided by height in meters squared (kg/m2). A cut-off point of 18.5 is used to define thinness or acute under nutrition and a BMI of 25 or above indicates overweight or obesity.

RESULTS:  Preliminary findings reveal that prevalence of the low birth weight is observed high among those women who are underweight, compared to women with normal BMI. Again, prevalence of the low birth weight found low among women who are not anemic compared to anaemic. The prevalence varies by level of anaemia i.e. mild, moderate and severe. 

CONCLUSIONS:  Emphasis needs to be given to maternal biosocial factors which are more persistent across India than the impact of other factors on birth weight. This can be done by selectively targeting interventions to improve nutrition, and restricting parity and promoting contraception.