Association of Low Birth Weight with Anemia

A Case Control Study

Abstract

Background: Low Birth Weight (LBW) remains to be critical issue and has serious feto-maternal outcomes. Maternal anemia is a significant risk factor that may potentially cause LBW and worsen birth outcome. It is therefore important to find out its impact on LBW. Objective: To find association of Low Birth Weight with maternal Anemia, a case control study. Methodology: This case-control study was conducted in Lady Aitchson Hospital in 2018. Non probability purposive sampling was used to collect data from 308 (105 cases and 203 controls) pregnant females. After taking informed consent, sociodemographic and medical information was taken from mothers. The Hb levels, status of anemia and birth weight was also taken. All data was entered and analysed through SPSS V.20. In order to see association of LBW with anemia, chi square test was applied. Results: Mean age of the cases was 25.37±4.51 years and of controls was 25.45±3.48 years. The mean Hb level for cases was 9.56±1.62 (Range 5.1-15.6) and for controls was 10.02±1.29 (Range 6.0-12.6) with highly significant mean difference (p-value=0.002).  Also, a significant association was found between LBW and anemia (p-value=0.004).  Conclusion: Low Hb level and Anemia has significant association with low birth weight. Therefore, its inevitable to screen all pregnant females for anemia and manage the diagnosed patients timely.