Factors related to low birth weight in Indonesia

Introduction: Previous studies have reported that low birth weight (LBW) correlates with neonatal death and 15 - 20% of all births worldwide are LBW. This research aimed to analyse the factors related to LBW in Indonesia. Methods: The authors collated secondary data from the 2017 Indonesian Demographic and Health Survey (IDHS). The sample consisted of 17,443 respondents. Besides LBW as the dependent variable, the independent variables consisted of maternal age, residence, wealth, education, employment, marital status, health insurance, antenatal care (ANC) visits, smoking behaviour, and gender of the baby. The final stage employed binary logistic regression. Results: Women aged 35-39 years were 0.688 times less likely than women aged 15-19 years to give birth to LBW babies. The wealthiest women were 0.712 times less likely than the poorest women to give birth to LBW babies. Women with higher education levels were 0.670 times less likely to have a LBW baby than women with no education level. Women who attended ≥4 ANC visits were 0.829 times less likely to have LBW babies than women who attended <4 ANC visits. Baby girls were 1.161 times more likely than baby boys to be born with LBW. Conclusion: The study concluded that the factors related to LBW in Indonesia were maternal age, wealth, education, ANC, and gender of the baby.