Article
Deworming during Pregnancy and Birth Outcomes
APDR Working Paper Series
(2018)
Abstract
Objective: One third of infants born in India are of low birth weight (<2.5 kilograms), leading to a higher prevalence of child malnutrition. These infants are at risk of not only short term but also long term adverse health outcomes. In India, maternal anaemia is one of the major concerns in low birth weight status and perinatal mortality.Intestinal parasitic infections likeHookworm can cause and increase iron deficient anaemia among mothers. These infections can reduce the effect of Iron supplementation during pregnancy. This in turn can lead to low birth weight. The current study examines the role of deworming during pregnancy for birth outcomes in particular determining low birth weight.
Design: The Data from the latest National Family Health Survey (2005-2006, released in 2008) is used for this analysis; NFHS is the Indian component of the Measure Demographic Health survey project. Matching estimation was done to assess the effect of intake of deworming drugs during pregnancy on infant’s birth weight, after controlling for various socio-demographic characteristics and quality of available water source and water treatment by the households.
Setting: India
Subjects: Mothers and Infants (n 17,117)
Results: Deworming during pregnancy both increased the birth weight of the infant as well as decreased the probability of low birth weight. The average increase in birth weight was estimated to be around 66 grams and the probability of low birth weight, was on average, reduced by 2.2 percentage points; if deworming drugs were administered during pregnancy.
Conclusion: A low cost intervention such as deworming should be considered in antenatal care package particularly in regions of India where helminthic infection is endemic. Apart from birth weight several other benefits could occur from deworming during pregnancy given the pathway through Iron Deficiency Anemia (IDA).
Keywords
- Birthweight,
- Maternal health,
- Iron Deficiency Anemia,
- deworming,
- Demography Health Survey,
- NFHS
Disciplines
Publication Date
2018
Citation Information
Malhotra, Nisha, and Roy, Devesh, Deworming During Pregnancy and Birth Outcomes (March 29, 2018). APDR Working Paper No. 18-12. Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=3152584 or http://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.3152584