Abstract

Background: World Health Organization defines low birth weight as weight at birth of less than 2500 g. Low birth weight could be the result of either preterm birth or restricted intrauterine growth. Globally, out of 139 million live births, about 20 million of them are low birth weight and nearly 95.6% of them are in developing countries. Ethiopia, having an infant mortality rate of 59/1000 live births, has limited data on low birth weight estimates as most deliveries take place at home. According to Ethiopian Demographic and Health Survey, 2011, only 5% of children were weighed at birth. The aim of this study was to assess determinants of low birth weight in Debremarkos referral hospital.
Methods: Facility based case control study was undertaken from June to November 2015. The total sample size was 287 (191 controls and 96 cases). Data was collected through interview using structured questioner, actual measurements and review of clinical records. After checking for completeness and accuracy, data was entered in to Epi-info version 7 and was analyzed by SPSS version 20. Variables with P-value <0.2 in bivariate analysis were entered to multivariate analysis and variables with p-value <0.05, 95% CI were considered statistically significant.
Results: Cases and controls were similar in almost all socio demographic characteristics. About 79.2% of cases and 93.2% of controls had ante natal care at least once. However, majority of cases (73.7%) had ANC visit of three or less, whereas more than half of controls (59.6%) had four or more. Parity (AOR=4.93, 95% CI, 2.55-9.52), three or less ANC visits (AOR=3.81, 95% CI, 1.82-7.99), anemia (AOR=3.91, 95% CI, 1.73-8.87), hypertensive disorders (AOR=6.13, 95% CI, 2.69-13.98) and frequency of meals per day (AOR=2.61, 95% CI, 1.26-5.38) were found significantly associated with low birth weight.
Conclusions: Parity, three or less ante natal care visits, anemia, hypertensive disorders of pregnancy and frequency of meals per day were found significantly associated with low birth weight. Emphasis should be given to ante natal service utilization, prevention of anemia, early detection and management of hypertensive disorders and feeding practice of pregnant women.

Keywords: Determinants; Low birth weight; Case control; Debremarkos; Ethiopia