PROXIMATE DETERMINANTS OF LOW BIRTH WEIGHT INCIDENCE IN SUNYANI MUNICIPALITY, GHANA

Abstract

Birth weight is one of the key indicators of the health and viability of the newborn infant and a person’s personality. It is desired that birth weight should be in the range of 2.5kg and 4.0kg. Low Birth Weight (LBW) has been defined by the World Health Organisation (WHO) as weight at birth less than 2.5kg. This study considered causal variables of LBW among infants in the Sunyani Municipality and sought to postulate a statistical model for predicting the likelihood of giving birth to Low Birth Weight infants using selected maternal demographic, socioeconomic and anthropometric variables. Two additional factors (distance to source of drinking water and domestic fuel) were introduced to determine their possible role in having a LBW infant. A purposive sample of one hundred and eighty (180) mothers with singleton deliveries between January and March 2010 was taken for the study. These respondents were interviewed at the maternity blocks of the Sunyani Regional and Municipal hospitals respectively. The results obtained showed that gestational age at birth, maternal nutrition and alcohol intake during pregnancy were significant with p-values (0.000, 0.013 and 0.004 respectively at0.05 level of significance) in predicting the likelihood of a Low Birth Weight baby. The stress factors though significantly correlated with LBW were not significant in the postulated model. The analyses were carried out using SPSS version 16.0.