Identifying Demographic and Socio-economic Factors of Influencing the Size of the child at Birth in Bangladesh

Abstract

Low birth weight is a predominant public health apprehension and one of the leading causes of early neonatal mortality in developing countries.The purpose of the study is to identify the demographic and socio-economic factors that influence the size of the child at birth in Bangladesh. This study utilized the child dataset from the Bangladesh Demographic and Health Survey (BDHS) 2014. A sample of size 4728 toddler who born inside 5 years of the survey was recorded from their mother. Univariate, bivariate and multivariate analysis are performed to show the prevalence of small-sized birth and its association with some socio-economic and demographic factors.About 20% of new-born child were reported as small size, 67% were average and 13% were large. Antenatal care visits, mothers’ education level, division, place of residence, media exposure, mothers’ age at birth, wealth index and fathers’ education level, mothers’ height and BMI, the gender of the child had a significant association with the birth size of Bangladeshi child. Mothers who were illiterate have greater chance to birth small-sized baby than literate mothers. Sylhet division is in poor condition compared to Chittagong and Dhaka division to have a small birth size. Female babies and multiple births have more risk than male babies and single birth to be smaller in size respectively. The authority can take necessary measures based on the outcomes of the study to increase the size of child at birth in Bangladesh.