Abstract:

Background: Globally, 20 million infants are born with low birth weight annually. In Tanzania,especially Mwanza Region where this study focused on identifying prevalence and associated factors of low birth weight has 39.4% ofdeaths caused by LBW. Little is known about the prevalence and factors associated with premature birth in BMC ,mwanza region.

Objective: To assess prevalence and factors associated with low birth weight among post-delivery women in bugando medical center, mwanza tanzania

Method: A hospital-based analytical cross-sectional study was conducted among138 post-delivery women and their neonates from July to august 2023 in the Mwanza region. A census sampling method was used to select study participants. A structured questionnaire was used for data collection. Frequencies, percentages, chi-square analysis, and logistic regression were used in the data analysis using SPSS version 20 to compare and explain the prevalence and contributing variables of low birthweight. A variable in the final model was judged statistically significant when it had a 95% Confidence Interval (CI) and a p-value of 0.05.

Results: The prevalence of LBW in the Mwanza Region was found to be n (38%). Also, the study revealed that among five factors analyzed had no association with low birth weight with a p-value of >0.0 5

Conclusion: The study revealed that the prevalence of low birthweight in Mwanza is 38%. However, we found no association among the five factors with LBW hence other study method should be used and changing formula to obtain number of sample