Frequency & Association of Low Birth Weight Babies with Important Risk Factors Among Term Pregnancies Visiting Private Health Care Facility.

Original Article

Abstract

Objective: To determine the frequency of low birth weight among term pregnancies and assess its association with maternal demographic, socioeconomic, antenatal, nutritional, and obstetric risk factors.

Methodology: This cross-sectional analytical study was conducted in the Department of Community Medicine, Khyber Medical College, Peshawar, Pakistan, from October 2025 to March 2026.We recruited 256 pregnant women aged >18 years with term pregnancies, using consecutive sampling. We defined LBW as birth weight <2.5 kg. We analyzed data using SPSS version 26.0. We used the chi-square test to explore associations between categorical variables, and considered p < 0.05 statistically significant.

Results: Out of 256 term pregnancies, 61 (23.83%) had LBW. Maternal age <25 years (51.95%), illiteracy (50.39%), household income <75,000 PKR (70.70%), birth interval <2 years (57.42%), fewer than four antenatal visits (51.56%), and hemoglobin <11 g/dL (65.63%) were common. LBW was significantly associated with maternal age (p=0.0228), occupation (p=0.0248), education (p=0.0236), monthly income (p=0.0079), birth interval (p=0.0133), antenatal visits (p=0.0193), anemia (p=0.0229), parity (p=0.0174), and iron-folic acid supplementation (p=0.0149). BMI was not significantly associated with locality, type of pregnancy, or mode of delivery.

Conclusion: LBW was common for term pregnancies and was linked with several maternal socio-economic and pregnancy-related risk factors. Enhancing antenatal care, preventing anemia, improving maternal nutrition, and providing socioeconomic support could contribute to the reduction of LBW and related neonatal morbidity.