Socio-Economic and Demographic Determinants of Low Birth Weight of Newborns among Muslim Minorities of Malda District of West Bengal, India

Low birth weight is one of the most important risk factor for newborn children health vulnerability in developing countries. The main aim of this study is to find out the association between the low birthweight (LBW) and use of ANC services including other socio-demographic characteristics of surveyed Muslim minorities women of Malda District. To find out the results, simple percentage distribution, cross tabulation, Pearson's χ2 test, and binary logistic regression analysis have been employed based on the primary data for selected socio-demographic variables and ANC Services using Data Science software (STATA 12). Approximately 36% of sample newborn children were born with low birthweight. The findings stated that, the likelihood of low birthweight was significantly lower among those newborn children whose mother had three or more ANC visits (AOR: 0.683, 95% CI: 0.346 - 1.346), ANC visit within first trimester (AOR: 0.865, 95% CI: 0.598 - 1.250), ANC by skilled provider (AOR: 0.761, 95% CI: 0.391 - 1.479), ANC by ASHA workers regularly (AOR: 0.683, 95% CI: (0.346 - 1.346), and who had received health services during pregnancy (AOR: 0.918, 95% CI: 0.614 - 1.371) compared to those mother who had not received those services.