Socioeconomic and demographic determinants of birth weight in southern rural Ghana: evidence from Dodowa Health and Demographic Surveillance System

BACKGROUND: Low birth weight (LBW) is one of the major factors affecting child morbidity and mortality worldwide. It also results in substantial costs to the health sector and imposes a significant burden on the society as a whole. This study seeks to investigate the determinants of low birth weight and the incidence of LBW in southern rural Ghana. METHODS: Pregnancy, birth, demographic and socioeconomic information of 6777 mothers who gave birth in 2011, 2012, and 2013 and information on their babies were extracted from a database. The database of Dodowa Health and Demographic Surveillance System is a longitudinal follow-up of over 24,000 households. The incidence of LBW was calculated and the univariable and multivariable associations between exposure variables and outcome were explored using logistic regression. STATA 11 was used for the analyses. RESULT: The results revealed that 40.21 % of the infants were not weighed at birth and the incidence of LBW for 2011 to 2013 was 8.72, 7.04 and 7.52 % respectively. Women aged 20–24, 25–29, 30–34 years were more than twice more likely to have babies weighing ≥2.5 kg compared to those <20 years (OR:2.32, 95 % CI:1.65–3.26, OR:2.73, 95 % CI:1.96–3.79, OR:2.87, 95 % CI:2.06–4.01) and mothers who were >34 years were more than three times more likely to have babies weighed ≥2.5 kg (OR: 3.59, 95 % CI:2.56–5.04). Mothers who were civil servants were 77 % more likely to have babies weighed ≥2.5 kg (OR: 1.77, 95 % CI: 1.99–2.87) compared to those who were unemployed. After adjusting for other explanation variables, mothers from poorer households were 30 % more likely to have babies who weighed ≥2.5 kg (OR: 1.30, 95 % CI: 1.01–1.66) compared to those from the poorest households. Women with parity2 and parity > 3 were 30 % and 81 % more likely to have babies weighing ≥2.5 kg (OR: 1.30, 95 % CI: 1.03–1.63, OR: 1.81, 95 % CI: 1.38–2.35) compared to those with parity1. Male infants were 52 % more likely to weigh ≥2.5 kg at birth (OR: 1.52, 95 % CI: 1.32–1.76) compared to females. CONCLUSION: Our study revealed that having infant birth weight ≥ 2.5 kg is highly associated with socioeconomic status of women household, the gender of an infant, parity, occupation and maternal age.