Association Between Maternal Undernutrition During Pregnancy and Newborn Low Birth Weight in Ethiopia: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis

Maternal undernutrition is a key contributor for poor fetal growth, low birth weight and infant morbidity and mortality. Globally, 15%-20% of all births were low birth weight, accounting more than 20 million births a year. This review aims to estimate the pooled association of maternal undernutrition during pregnancy with newborn low birth weight in Ethiopia. A systematic literature search was done from PubMed, Scopus, Hinari, Google Scholar and online research repositories. All studies reporting the association of undernutrition with low birth weight among pregnant women in Ethiopia were included. Heterogeneity between the included studies was assessed using the Cochrane Q-test and I2 statistics. Publication bias was also assessed using Egger's regression test with 5% significance level. Finally, the random effects analysis model was used to estimate the overall pooled effect size. Among 596 identified studies, 15 articles were met inclusion criteria and included in this meta-analysis. A total of 6441 mother-neonate pairs were involved in this analysis. The pooled effect size revealed that there was a significant association between maternal undernutrition during pregnancy and newborn low birth weight in Ethiopia AOR: 2.52 (2.01-3.15, I2 = 78.42%). This review was estimated that maternal undernutrition during pregnancy had a significant association with newborn low birth weight in Ethiopia. Undernutrition pregnant women had an increased chance of giving low birth weight. The finding of this review may help the stakeholders to focus on managing pregnancy malnutrition.