Objectives: Low birth weight is a challenging multifaceted public health problem due to its association with increased risk of morbidity and mortality of infants. Both community and institution based studies are needed to find out the lacunae regarding occurrence of low birth weight babies, so that effective strategies which are relevant to the local conditions can be adopted for its prevention. We conducted this study to estimate the prevalence and determine the factors associated with low birth weight in the live born infants delivered in a tertiary care hospital.
Methods: This was an observational, cross-sectional questionnaire-based study done in the Department of Pharmacology and Department of Gynaecology and Obstetrics in this tertiary care hospital. Mothers who gave birth to their baby in the Obstetrics Ward were included. The subjects underwent a face-to-face interview using a suitably designed and validated questionnaire and the data were collected.
Results: A total of 360 subjects were interviewed. 34.7% of mothers were below 20 yrs of age. Majority of the mother had education up to secondary level (58.33%) and were housewife (82.22%). 58.2% of mothers belonged to family size of 5-10 members. Among the 104 low birth weight infants, 63.46% were small for date and 36.54% were preterm. The mean weight of the newborn was 2.54 kg. Maternal age, number of family members, number of anti natal care visits, anemia maternal weight gain during pregnancy were associated with low birth weight (p<0.05). No significant differences were found among the newborns with and without low birth weight regarding the variables like religion, family type, maternal addiction, pervious abortion and tetanus toxoid taken by the mother.
Conclusion: As low birth weight is the major cause of perinatal morbidity and mortality, every step should be taken for its prevention. In this regard, proper maternal education for antenatal care and regular visit to antenatal care clinic should be done. Field workers may help to impart correct knowledge of diet through proper health education besides providing other advices like delaying the age of first child, birth spacing, and family planning services utilization.
 
