Incidence and Survival Rate of Having Newborn with Low Birth Weight and its Determinants among Thai Women

Abstract

Objective: To determine the incidence and survival rate of having newborn with low birth weight and its associating factors among Thai women. Method: In this retrospective study, data were collected from 1,645 women with singleton pregnancy who had antennal care (ANC) and delivered in the HRH Princess Maha Chakri Sirindhorn Medical Center (MSMC) Hospital from January 1 to December 31, 2017. The individual socio-demographic and maternity record were reviewed. Kaplan-Meier survival analysis and Cox proportional hazard regression was conducted. Results: The incidence rate of low birth weight was 47.8 per 100 person-weeks. The results revealed that after controlling for individual socio-demographic factors, maternal factors namely gravida (HR = 2.30, P = 0.037), number of antenatal visit (HR = 0.78, P < 0.001), gestational age at delivery (HR = 0.51, P < 0.001), obstetric complication (HR = 1.77, P = 0.008), and obstetric complication related with medicine disease (HR = 3.64, P < 0.001) were found to be significantly associated with hazard rate. Conclusion: Our result suggest that the birth weight and certain maternal factors were correlated. Pregnant women should be encouraged to have antenatal visit continuously until term labor to improve survival rate of low birth weight of the newborn. Key words: survival probability, hazard rate, low birth weight, maternal determinant