Low birth weight and its associated factors in Ethiopia: a systematic review and meta-analysis.

Abstract

Background Different primary studies in Ethiopia showed the burden of low birth weight. However, variation among those studies was seen. This study was aimed to estimate the national prevalence and associated factors of low birth weight in Ethiopia.

Methods PubMed, Web of Science, Cochrane library, and Google Scholar were searched. A funnel plot and Egger's regression test were used to see publication bias. I-squared statistic was applied to check heterogeneity of studies. A weighted inverse variance random-effects model was applied to estimate the national prevalence and the effect size of associated factors. The subgroup analysis was conducted by region, study design, and year of publication.

Result A total of 30 studies with 55,085 participants were used for prevalence estimation. The pooled prevalence of LBW was 17.3% (95% CI: 14.1-20.4). Maternal age 2 (AOR = 5.6; 95% CI: 1.7-9.4), and gestational age

Conclusions The prevalence of low birth weight in Ethiopia remains high. This review may help policy-makers and program officers to design low birth weight preventive interventions.