Characteristics of Households - Childinfo.org

Low Birth WeightWeight at birth is a good indicator not only of a mother’shealth and nutritional status but also the newborn’schances for survival, growth, long-term health andpsychosocial development. Low birth weight (less than2500 grams) carries a range of grave health risks forchildren. Babies who were undernourished in the wombface a greatly increased risk of dying during their earlymonths and years. Those who survive have impairedimmune function and increased risk of disease; they arelikely to remain undernourished, with reduced musclestrength, throughout their lives, and suffer a higherincidence of diabetes and heart disease in later life.Children born underweight also tend to have a lowerIQ and cognitive disabilities, affecting their performancein school and their job opportunities as adults.Low birth weight stems primarily from the mother’spoor health and nutrition. At the same time, inthe industrialized world, cigarette smoking duringpregnancy is the leading cause of low birth weight. Indeveloped and developing countries alike, teenagerswho give birth when their own bodies have yet to finishgrowing run the risk of bearing underweight babies.The percentage of births weighing below 2500 gramsis estimated from two items in the questionnaire: themother’s assessment of the child’s size at birth (i.e., verysmall, smaller than average, average, larger than average,very large) and the mother’s recall of the child’s weightor the weight as recorded on a health card if the childwas weighed at birth 11 .Overall, almost all children (99.6 percent of births) inSerbia were weighed at birth and approximately 5 percentof infants are estimated to weigh less than 2500 gramsat birth (Table NU.9). There is no variation by region(Figure NU.4). The percentage of low birth weight variesby wealth quintile. There are 8 percent of infants with lowbirth weight among the children in the poorest quintilecompared with 4 percent among the richest quintile.Table NU.9: Low birth weight infants, Serbia, 2010Percentage of last-born children in the 2 years preceding the surveythat are estimated to have weighed below 2500 grams at birthand percentage of live births weighted at birthPercent of live births:Below 2500grams 1Weighted atbirth 2Number of livebirths in the last2 yearsRegionBelgrade 5.7 99.6 91Vojvodina 4.2 100.0 163Sumadija andWestern Serbia5.0 99.3 144Southern andEastern Serbia4.9 99.5 146AreaUrban 4.5 99.8 281Rural 5.2 99.4 262Mother’s educationPrimary 5.7 99.5 79Secondary 5.1 99.8 307Higher 3.9 99.7 148Wealth index quintilePoorest 8.3 98.6 112Second 4.0 100.0 97Middle 3.6 100.0 87Fourth 4.7 100.0 106Richest 3.5 99.5 141Total 4.8 99.6 5431MICS indicator 2.182MICS indicator 2.19Figure NU.4: Percentage of infants weighing less than2500 grams at birth by wealth index, Serbia, 201011For a detailed description of the methodology, see Boerma, J. T., Weinstein, K. I., Rutstein, S. O., and Sommerfelt, A. E., 1996. Data on Birth Weight inDeveloping Countries: Can Surveys Help? Bulletin of the World Health Organization, 74(2), 209–16.70MULTIPLE INDICATOR CLUSTER SURVEY 2010