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Statistical Analysis Of Birth Pattern
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CHAPTER ONE
INTRODUCTION
1.0 BACKGROUND TO THE STUDY
In
1948, the first World Health Assembly adopted an international
definition of prematurity as birth weight of 2.5kilograms or less (UN
(2004)). It was however discovered that in developing countries the use
of this standard resulted in an unusually high proportion of `premature'
babies most of who were not born prematurely (Yilgwanet.al. ,2004). The
World Health Organization (WHO) in 1994 then conducted a study on
eighteen different countries at different stages of development. This
revealed that babies could be classified into three main groups based on
their birth weight and gestational age: Small for gestational age,
appropriate for age, large for age. Low birth weight was then defined as
those babies weighing less than 2.5kilograms within twenty four hours
of birth. This group of babies can either be small for age or
appropriate for age and they are usually at high risk of dying in their
first twenty eight days of life from factors like hypoglycaemia, sepsis,
respiratory distress, prematurity etc. In Nigeria, neonatal death
(death of an infant in the first twenty eight days of live) contributes
about 25% of the total infant mortality with prematurity and low birth
weight being the main contributor to these high neonatal deaths(Grange,
2006).
A reduction of at least one-third in the proportion of infants
with low birth weight is one of the seven major goals for the current
decade of the “A World Fit for Children†programme of the United
Nations. Moreover, nutritional deprivation — the major determinant of
low birth weight — is a clear obstacle to the attainment of many of the
Millennium Development Goals. Monitoring improvements in low birth
weight is thus being given high priority within the UN system, as well
as by national governments and the international nutrition community.
Although
the significance and interpretation of low birth weight has recently
been debated, most experts agree that weight at birth is an indicator of
a new born's chances for survival, growth, long-term health and
psychosocial development. Babies whose birth weight is low as a result
of undernourishment face a greatly increased risk of death during their
first months and years of life (Bale et.al.,2003, UN, 2000, Allen &
Gillespie, 2001). The evidence also suggests that those children who do
survive may be more likely to experience health problems throughout
their lives; these include impaired cognitive development, as well as
diabetes and coronary heart disease in adulthood (Bhargavaet.al., 2004,
Barker, 2003). Low birth weight in developing countries occurs primarily
because of poor maternal health and nutrition. A variety of
socioeconomic, medical, and psychosocial factors are known to increase
the risk of low birth weight, but prevention programs aimed at primarily
high-risk subgroups have been largely ineffective.
In addition,
diseases such as diarrhoea, malaria and respiratory infections, which
are common in many developing countries, can significantly impair foetal
growth when women become infected during pregnancy (Bale et.al.2003, UN
2000). In Nigeria just like in many developing countries, low birth
weight is a significant contributor to the overall infant mortality rate
and a major factor in the high neonatal mortality rate currently seen.
This
research work however seeks to check for the dependence of birth weight
on some factors which may affect it such as parity, maternal height,
maternal age, gestation period, and gestation weight using the
Chi-Square test of independence, regression analysis to see possible
statistical relationships if any exists among the variables in question.
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ABSRACT - [ Total Page(s): 1 ]This study examined the birth pattern in the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) using the University of Abuja Teaching Hospital (UATH) as a case study. Data was collected on two hundred (200) neonates from the hospital. The research studied the effect of some factors on birth weight of neonates, the factors includes the age of the mother, parity, mother’s height, gestation period and mother’s weight at gestation. A regression model was also estimated which was used to forecast. The ... Continue reading---
