Association of short interpregnancy interval with low birth weight and preterm birth in Ethiopia: a systematic review and meta-analysis.

OBJECTIVES

Evidence from developing countries showed that short interpregnancy intervals are associated with low birth weight (LBW) and preterm birth (PB). However, in Ethiopia, the association between short birth intervals and LBW and PB remains inconclusive. Therefore, this review aimed to provide a comprehensive nationwide estimate of the association between short interpregnancy intervals and LBW and PB in Ethiopia.

DESIGN

A systematic review and meta-analysis was conducted in accordance with the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses (PRISMA) guidelines.

DATA SOURCES: PubMed/Medline, EMBASE, Web of Science, Cochrane library, Google Scholar and institutional repositories were searched to retrieve relevant articles.

ELIGIBILITY CRITERIA: All observational studies conducted in Ethiopia that reported the association between short interpregnancy intervals and LBW, PB or both were included. Studies were excluded if they were animal studies, case reports, conference abstracts or had insufficient data to compute the required effect estimates.

DATA EXTRACTION AND SYNTHESIS: Two independent reviewers extracted the data using a standardised data extraction form. Stata V.14 was used for data analysis. A random-effects model was applied to estimate the pooled association between short interpregnancy interval and LBW and PB, with 95% CIs.

RESULTS

Women with a short interpregnancy interval had 1.34 times higher odds of delivering an LBW infant (OR=1.34; 95% CI: 1.14 to 1.58) and 1.56 times higher odds of PB (OR=1.56; 95% CI: 1.27 to 1.92) compared with women with an optimal birth interval.

CONCLUSIONS

Short interpregnancy interval was associated with an increased risk of LBW and PB. Therefore, community- and facility-based interventions promoting optimal birth spacing, alongside universal access to family planning services-including modern contraceptive methods and breastfeeding promotion-are recommended.