Demographic surveillance over 12 years helps elicit determinants of low birth weights in India

• Published in: PloS one 2019-07, Vol.14 (7), p.e0218587
• Main Authors: Apte, Aditi, Patil, Rutuja, Lele, Pallavi, Choudhari, Bharat, Bhattacharjee, Tathagata, Bavdekar, Ashish, Juvekar, Sanjay
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Adolescent; Adult; Age; Biology and Life Sciences; Birth weight; Births; Child health; Computer and Information Sciences; Cultivation; Data collection; Demographic aspects; Demographics; Education; Educational Status; Families & family life; Female; Field study; Health aspects; Health care; Health care facilities; Health facilities; Health surveys; Humans; India; Infant, Low Birth Weight; Infant, Newborn; Intelligence gathering; Low birth weight; Male; Maternal Age; Maternal Health Services - statistics & numerical data; Medicine and Health Sciences; Occupations; Occupations - statistics & numerical data; Parity - physiology; People and Places; Population; Pregnancy; Public Health Surveillance; Risk Factors; Rural areas; Rural Health Services - statistics & numerical data; Rural Population; Sentinel surveillance; Sex Factors; Social Class; Social Sciences; Socioeconomic factors; Socioeconomics; Statistics; Surveillance; Surveillance equipment; Trends; Weight; Womens health
• ISSN: 1932-6203; 1932-6203
• DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0218587

Low birth weight is an important predictor of maternal and child health. Birth weight is likely to be affected by maternal health, socioeconomic status and quality of health care facilities. To assess trends in the birth weight, the proportion of low birth weight, maternal factors and health care facilities for delivery in villages of Western Maharashtra from the year 2004 to 2016 and to analyze factors associated with low birth weight for total birth data of 2004-2016. Data collected for 19244 births from 22 villages in Vadu Health and Demographic Surveillance System (HDSS), Pune, Maharashtra, India from the year 2004 to 2016 were used for this analysis. There was an overall increase in the annual mean birth weight from 2640.12 gram [95% CI 2602.21-2686.84] in the year 2004 to 2781.19 gram [95% CI 2749.49-2797.95] in the year 2016. There was no secular trend to show increase or decrease in the proportion of low weight at birth. Increasing maternal age (>18 years) compounded with better education, reduced parity and increasing number of institutional deliveries were significant trends observed during the past decade. Low birth weight was found to be associated with female gender, first birth order, poor maternal education and occupation as cultivation. Changes in maternal age, education, occupation, and increased institutionalized deliveries contributed in to increasing birth weights in rural Maharashtra. Female gender, first birth order, poor maternal education and occupation of cultivation are associated with increased risk of low birth weight.