Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
. 2018 Mar 6;18(1):100.
doi: 10.1186/s12887-018-1068-0.

Analysis of low birth weight and its co-variants in Bangladesh based on a sub-sample from nationally representative survey

Jahidur Rahman Khan  1 , Md Mazharul Islam  2 , Nabil Awan  2   3 , Olav Muurlink  4   5
Affiliations

Analysis of low birth weight and its co-variants in Bangladesh based on a sub-sample from nationally representative survey

Jahidur Rahman Khan et al. BMC Pediatr. .

Abstract

Background: Low birth weight (LBW) remains a leading global cause of childhood morbidity and mortality. This study leverages a large national survey to determine current prevalence and socioeconomic, demographic and heath related factors associated with LBW in Bangladesh.

Methods: Data from the Multiple Indicator Cluster Survey (MICS) 2012-13 of Bangladesh were analyzed. A total of 2319 women for whom contemporaneous birth weight data was available and who had a live birth in the two years preceding the survey were sampled for this study. However, this analysis only was able to take advantage of 29% of the total sample with 71% missing birth weight for newborns. The indicator, LBW (< 2500 g) of infants, was examined as the outcome variable in association with different socioeconomic, demographic and health-related covariates. Mixed-effects logistic regression was performed to identify possible factors related to LBW.

Results: In the selected sub-sample, about 20% of infants were born with LBW, with lowest rates observed in Rajshahi (11%) and highest rates in Rangpur (28%). Education of mothers (adjusted odds ratio [AOR] 0.52, 95% confidence interval [CI] 0.39-0.68 for secondary or higher educated mother) and poor antenatal care (ANC) (AOR 1.40, 95% CI 1.04-1.90) were associated with LBW after adjusting for mother's age, parity and cluster effects. Mothers from wealthier families were less likely to give birth to an LBW infant. Further indicators that wealth continues to play a role in LBW were that place of delivery, ANC and delivery assistance by quality health workers were significantly associated with LBW. However there has been a notable fall in LBW prevalence in Bangladesh since the last comparable survey (prevalence 36%), and an evidence of possible elimination of rural/urban disparities.

Conclusions: Low birth weight remains associated with key indicators not just of maternal poverty (notably adequate maternal education) but also markers of structural poverty in health care (notably quality ANC). Results based on this sub-sample indicate LBW is still a public health concern in Bangladesh and an integrated effort from all stakeholders should be continued and interventions based on the study findings should be devised to further reduce the risk of LBW.

Keywords: Bangladesh; Infants; Low birth weight; Rural and urban births.

PubMed Disclaimer

Conflict of interest statement

Ethics approval and consent to participate

This study entails secondary analysis of data from Bangladesh Multiple Indicator Cluster Survey (MICS) collected in 2012–13. MICS Data were collected from eligible respondents following informed consent by the national statistical office, Bangladesh Bureau of Statistics (BBS) and UNICEF. For the analyses in this paper, we used de-identified MICS dataset from UNICEF website (http://www.mics.unicef.org/) which was released for public use. Ethical clearance was the responsibility of the institutions that administered the survey.

Consent for publication

Not applicable.

Competing interests

The authors declare that they have no competing interests.

Publisher’s Note

Springer Nature remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations.

Figures

Fig. 1
Fig. 1
Prevalence of LBW by mother’s age and parity
Fig. 2
Fig. 2
Place of residence and division wise prevalence of LBW
See this image and copyright information in PMC

References

    1. Whincup PH, Kaye SJ, Owen CG, Huxley R, Cook DG, Anazawa S, Barrett-Connor E, Bhargava SK, Birgisdottir BE, Carlsson S, De Rooij SR. Birth weight and risk of type 2 diabetes: a systematic review. JAMA. 2008;300:2886–2897. doi: 10.1001/jama.2008.886. - DOI - PubMed
    1. Risnes KR, Vatten LJ, Baker JL, Jameson K, Sovio U, Kajantie E, Osler M, Morley R, Jokela M, Painter RC, Sundh V. Birth weight and mortality in adulthood: a systematic review and meta-analysis. Int J Epidemiol. 2011;40(3):647–661. doi: 10.1093/ije/dyq267. - DOI - PubMed
    1. Lyall DM, Inskip HM, Mackay D, Deary IJ, McIntosh AM, Hotopf M, Kendrick T, Pell JP, Smith DJ. Low birth weight and features of neuroticism and mood disorder in 83 545 participants of the UK biobank cohort. British Journal of Psychiatry Open. 2016;2(1):38–44. doi: 10.1192/bjpo.bp.115.002154. - DOI - PMC - PubMed
    1. Wilcox AJ. On the importance and the unimportance of birth weight. Int J Epidemiol. 2001;30(6):1233–1241. doi: 10.1093/ije/30.6.1233. - DOI - PubMed
    1. United Nations Children’s Fund. World Health Organization . Low birth weight: country, regional and global estimates. New York: UNICEF; 2004.

LinkOut - more resources