Socio-economic and nutritional determinants of low birth weight in India (original) (raw)

2014, North American Journal of Medical Sciences

dying during their early childhood. [2,3] Moreover, research highlight strong associations between LBW and increased risk of infections, malnutrition, poor academic performance and problems related to mental, behavior and learning diffi culties during childhood. [3,4] Consequences of LBW trek into adulthood and can cause range of chronic diseases, e.g., ischemic heart disease, stroke, hypertension, diabetes, metabolic syndrome, malignancies, dementia, and osteoarthritis. [3,5] Low-income countries account for majority share of LBW. Half of the children with a LBW were born in South Asia and among these countries India and Bangladesh has the highest prevalence of LBW (30%). [6] Consequently, strategies to reduce prevalence of LBW is important in order to achieve the forth Millennium Development Goals (MDG 4)-reduce child mortality. [6] Contributing factors for LBW are multifaceted and include factors such as maternal age, poor maternal nutritional status, and non-pregnant weight, gestational age, intervals between pregnancies, parity, educational status, violence during pregnancy, lack of antenatal care (ANC) and very low socioeconomic status. [7-10] In India, low body mass index (BMI), short stature, anemia and/or other micronutrient defi ciencies are known to increase the risk of giving birth to a baby with LBW.