Maternal under-nutrition and anaemia factors associated with low birth weight babies in Yemen

Low birth weight (LBW) is a common public health problem in the world and an important cause of childhood morbidity and mortality in low resource settings. 1 It has been defined by world health organization (WHO) as weight of live born infants of less than 2,500 grams, regardless of gestational age or any other etiology. 2 The disease and its consequences have a strong link with the health status of under five years' children, adversely affects their growth and development and put them at risk of death or growth retardation, poor cognition and school performance, neurological sequels and complications of chronic illnesses in early and later life. 1,3 Globally, the burden of LBW has found to be at 15.5% of all births, with above 20 million neonates a year, the majority of them are from developing countries. It has been identified that the incidence rates in Asia; range from 5.2% to 30%, sub-Saharan Africa; range from 7% to 18%, Latin America; range from 9% to 17.9% while in North America; range from 6% to 6.9% and Europe; range from 4% to 7%. 4,5