Correlation Between Maternal Factors and Birth Weight of Newborns in Uganda

Abstract

<title>Abstract</title> Background Birth weight is an important determinant of infant's well-being. It is an indicator of both short and long term health consequences. Infants born with low weight are more than 100 times more likely to die in the first year of life than infants of normal birth weight. Neonatal death among infants weighing 1500–2500 grams is 20 times higher than among infants of normal weight. Method The study used 2016 Uganda Demographic and Health Survey data. It focused on mothers with recorded birth weight from either written records or through a mother’s recall forming a sample size of 7,101 mothers. Generalized structural equation modeling was used to measure the direct and indirect relationships between maternal factors and birth weight of newborns. Results The results indicated that the prevalence of low birth weight was 9 percent and mean birth weight of 3,345g. Belonging to the rich wealth index reduced odds of giving birth to babies with low birth weight compared to the poor wealth index (OR = 0.7, p = 0.001). A mother who had at least 4 antenatal visits had reduced odds of having a baby with low birth weight (OR = 0.7, p = 0.001). Mothers with higher level education, occupation categories of sales and services were indirect predictors of birth weight through antenatal care (p = 0.016, p = 0.012 and p = 0.039 respectively). Therefore, more antenatal care centers need to be established, advocacy for prenatal care needs to be intensified to enroll all expectant mothers. Urgently, interventions targeted on empowering mothers economically need to be established.