DETERMINANTS OF LOW BIRTH WEIGHT NEW-BORNS IN INDIA: A CROSS- SECTIONAL INSIGHTS FROM NATIONAL FAMILY HEALTH SURVEY

Abstract

Background: Estimate of Low Birth Weight (LBW) new-borns are an important measure for maternal and child health services. It is connected to high child mortality in low-middle-income countries, which score for 95% of LBW babies born annually world-wide. Purpose: This intent aims to find out occurrence and determinants of LBW new-borns in India. Method: Data was obtained from the National Family Health Survey-5 (2019–21), which comprised of 91,821 women aged 15–49 with a mono-fetal pregnancy in last one year, having documented neonatal birth weight. Data from 727 districts in India was compiled through cross-sectional coverage utilizing census blocks/villages, for characteristics like socio-demographic, antenatal, and reproductive attributes from each family by interviewing the available adult women. Occurrence of LBW was analysed in background of maternal socio-demographic and reproductive factors to find association, if any, applying chi-square tests and multivariate logistic regression using STATA-16 software. Result: The current endeavor finds the occurrence rate of LBW new-borns is 17.4%. Important predictors included illiteracy, low economic status, underweight mothers, dearth of antenatal care, anemia, ascending parity, girl neonates, smoking tobacco, and consuming alcohol in the antenatal period. Conclusion: The analysis observes a 17.4% occurrence of low-birth-weight new-borns in India, principally determined by illiteracy, low economic status, poor antenatal care, undernutrition, high parity, and substance abuse. Focused socio-demographic and reproductive interventions can efficiently reduce preventable LBW births.