Table 1 Demographic characteristics by region
From: Regional trends in birth weight in low- and middle-income countries 2013–2018
Characteristic | Africa (N = 85,551) | Asia (N = 122,349) | Central America (N = 57,230) | Africa vs. Asia | Africa vs. CA | Asia vs. CA | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Mean/% diff | p value | Mean/% diff | p value | Mean/% diff | p value | ||||
Maternal age (years), Mean (SD) | 24.43 (6.09) | 24.81 (4.24) | 26.01 (6.56) | − 0.38 | < 0.001 | − 1.58 | < 0.001 | − 1.20 | < 0.001 |
Maternal age (years), N (%) | |||||||||
11–19 | 20,101 (24) | 7165 (6) | 9772 (17) | 18 | < 0.001 | 7 | < 0.001 | − 11 | < 0.001 |
20–35 | 60,198 (70) | 112,716 (92) | 41,572 (73) | − 22 | < 0.001 | − 3 | < 0.001 | 19 | < 0.001 |
36+ | 5149 (6) | 2454 (2) | 5883 (10) | 4 | < 0.001 | − 4 | < 0.001 | − 8 | < 0.001 |
Nulliparous, N (%) | 26,529 (31) | 76,189 (37) | 17,039 (30) | − 6 | < 0.001 | 1 | < 0.001 | 7 | < 0.001 |
Education, N (%) | |||||||||
No formal education | 3902 (5) | 36,886 (30) | 7583 (13) | − 25 | < 0.001 | − 8 | < 0.001 | 17 | < 0.001 |
Primary/secondary | 77,313 (90) | 73,006 (60) | 46,323 (81) | 30 | < 0.001 | 9 | < 0.001 | − 21 | < 0.001 |
University | 4230 (5) | 12,394 (10) | 3323 (6) | − 5 | < 0.001 | − 1 | < 0.001 | 4 | < 0.001 |
Maternal weight(kgs), Mean (SD) | 60.19 (9.51) | 46.68 (8.05) | 56.70 (9.48) | 13.51 | < 0.001 | 3.49 | < 0.001 | − 10.02 | < 0.001 |
Maternal height(cm), Mean (SD) | 158.74 (6.72) | 152.93 (5.65) | 147.10 (5.45) | 5.81 | < 0.001 | 11.64 | < 0.001 | 5.83 | < 0.001 |
Male infant, N (%) | 43,179 (50) | 63,443 (52) | 29,175 (51) | − 2 | < 0.001 | − 1 | 0.052 | 1 | < 0.001 |
Facility birth, N (%) | 65,281 (76) | 108,573 (89) | 33,135 (58) | − 13 | < 0.001 | − 18 | < 0.001 | 31 | < 0.001 |
Number of days between birth and birth weight measurement, Mean (SD) | 0.32 (1.04) | 0.51 (0.97) | 1.07 (1.89) | − 0.19 | < 0.001 | − 0.75 | < 0.001 | − 0.56 | < 0.001 |