Determinants of Low Birth Weight in Ghana: Does Quality of Antenatal Care Matter?
Emmanuel Banchani1, Eric Y Tenkorang2
1Department of Sociology, Memorial University of Newfoundland, St. John's, NL, A1C 5S7, Canada.
Insights
High-quality antenatal care significantly reduces the risk of low birth weight in Ghana. Ensuring adequate visits and high-quality clinical interventions are crucial for healthy newborn birth weights.
Area of Science:
- Public Health
- Maternal Health
- Neonatal Health
Background:
- Low birth weight (LBW) is a significant contributor to infant mortality, particularly in resource-limited regions.
- Understanding LBW determinants and the role of antenatal care (ANC) quality is crucial for effective interventions.
- Ghana faces challenges with LBW, necessitating research into effective ANC strategies.
Purpose of the Study:
- To investigate the association between the quality of antenatal care and birth weight in Ghana.
- To identify specific components of ANC quality that impact newborn birth weight.
- To provide evidence for improving maternal and neonatal health outcomes in Ghana.
Main Methods:
- Utilized data from the 2017 Ghana Maternal Health Survey.
- Employed complementary log-log models to analyze the relationship between ANC quality and LBW.
- Examined variables including screening/diagnostic procedures, clinical interventions, and provider type.
Main Results:
- Women receiving high-quality clinical interventions had a significantly lower likelihood of LBW.
- Achieving the recommended minimum of eight antenatal care visits was associated with a reduced risk of LBW.
- Both the quantity and quality of antenatal care demonstrated a significant impact on birth weight.
Conclusions:
- The quality of clinical interventions during antenatal care is as vital as the number of visits for reducing LBW.
- Enhancing the quality of antenatal care services in Ghana can contribute to lowering the incidence of low birth weight.
- Evidence supports the integration of quality improvement measures into antenatal care programs to improve neonatal outcomes.
Objectives:
Low birth weight is a public health issue that contributes to perinatal and infant mortality, especially in limited-resource settings, but there is limited understanding of the determinants of low birth weight and the contributions of quality antenatal care to maintaining healthy birth weights for newborns in such settings. This study aims at establishing links between birthweight and quality antenatal care in Ghana.
Methods:
We used data collected from the recent 2017 Ghana Maternal Health Survey and applied complementary log-log models to investigate relationships between the quality of antenatal care (screening/diagnostic procedures, clinical interventions, type of health provider) and low birth weight in Ghana.
Results:
The results reveal that compared to women who received low quality clinical interventions, those who received high quality interventions were significantly less likely to have a low birth weight baby. Similarly, women who made the recommended number of antenatal visits (at least eight) were significantly less likely to have a baby with low birth weight than women making fewer visits.
Conclusion:
Our findings suggest that while the number of antenatal visits is important, the quality of care received during such visits is equally relevant to reducing low birth weight in Ghana.
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