Prevalence of Low Birth Weight Neonates during COVID-19 Pandemic in a Tertiary Care Hospital at Larkana, Sindh, Pakistan

Abstract

In comparison to other middle-income countries, Pakistan has a high prevalence of low birth weight.  Currently the situation has worsened because of the COVID-19 pandemic where stress can have a negative impact on intrauterine development, leading to a rise in preterm birth rates and the incidence of low birth weight babies. The goal of this study is to estimate the prevalence of low birth weight in a tertiary care hospital in Larkana, Sindh, Pakistan, during the COVID-19 pandemic. In this cross-sectional study, the hospital records of two thousand, two hundred and seventy eight neonates were analyzed from patients’ data register for the year 2020. Data were analyzed using Microsoft Excel spread sheet. Of 2278 children admitted to the neonatal ward, only 29.2% babies had birth weight within normal range, 0.7% neonates were high birth weight, and the rest of the admitted babies (70.1%) during the year 2020 had birth weight below 2500 grams. Smallest birth weight observed in the study was 0.9 kg and 4.8 kg was highest birth weight (mean 2.35 kg, SD 0.88, SE 0.012). Female neonates were 895 (39.3%) and the rest of the 1383 (60.7%) babies were male. This study revealed that in Sindh province of Pakistan, the prevalence of low birth weight is extremely high during COVID-19 pandemic. Therefore, the findings suggest that there is need for a lot more emphasis on improving maternal mental health, nutrition and several other relevant factors to reduce the prevalence of low birth weight.