Maternal Demographic Determinants of Low Birth Weight Babies in District Jhang (Pakistan)

Abstract

The study was conducted to investigate the maternal demographic determinants of low birth weight babies in district Jhang, Pakistan. In the study demographic characteristics of mothers of low birth weight babies were observed. These characteristics were residential area, education level, socio-economic status, age of mothers at the time of birth and pregnancy interval. These all mentioned characteristics were taken as independent variables against the dependent variable, low birth weight of infants. A sample size of 220 mothers who gave birth to a low weight baby was surveyed through purposive sampling technique in government hospitals of District Jhang and its Tehsils. Data was entered and analyzed by using SPSS. One way analysis of variance with mean plots was used to find out the mean differences between maternal demographic characteristics and low birth weight of babies. Rural women, comparatively aged women, early married women and low educated women were found to have extremely low birth weight babies.

DOI: 10.5901/mjss.2015.v6n4s1p498