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- Title
High Prevalence of Low Birth Weight Babies Born to Pregnant Women Referred to a District Hospital in Rural Zambia.
- Authors
Buser, Julie M.; Boyd, Carol J.; Moyer, Cheryl A.; Zulu, Davy; Ngoma-Hazemba, Alice; Jones, Andrew D.; Lori, Jody R.
- Abstract
Objectives: Low birthweight (LBW) is a significant public health problem in sub-Saharan Africa and LBW in rural Zambia is high. Our study explored the prevalence of LBW for newborns whose mothers were referred from a rural health center to a district referral hospital in Lundazi, Zambia. Methods: A five-month retrospective record review of Ministry of Health data was performed to examine birthweight characteristics of a convenience sample of newborns from ten facilities referring to one district hospital (n = 234). Results: Among all cases, 21% (n = 49) of newborns were LBW. For LBW newborns, 73% (n = 36) were preterm with mothers having a pregnancy duration of less than 37 weeks. Newborns whose mothers experienced twin pregnancies (p =.021) and prolonged labor (p =.033) were more often LBW. However, regression models demonstrated no difference among newborns with and without LBW for prolonged labor (p =.344) and twin pregnancies (p =.324) when controlling for variables that could interact with the maternal-newborn delivery outcomes. Conclusions: for Practice Healthcare providers and policy makers need to address the short and long-term effects of LBW throughout the lifecycle in rural Zambia. More maternal-newborn health research is needed to understand the underlying socioeconomic, social, and cultural determinants influencing LBW in rural Zambia.
- Subjects
ZAMBIA; ACQUISITION of data methodology; RURAL conditions; RETROSPECTIVE studies; LOW birth weight; BIRTH weight; MEDICAL records; DESCRIPTIVE statistics; DISEASE prevalence; STATISTICAL sampling
- Publication
Maternal & Child Health Journal, 2021, Vol 25, Issue 8, p1182
- ISSN
1092-7875
- Publication type
Article
- DOI
10.1007/s10995-021-03190-8