PLOS ONE · 6 authors, 4 centres
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Using DHS data from 29 low- and middle-income countries, this study finds that mothers who own mobile phones have infants with higher birth weight and lower odds of low birth weight compared to mothers who do not own mobile phones, even after adjusting for socioeconomic confounders.
This observational study uses Demographic and Health Survey data from 29 low- and middle-income countries to examine associations between mothers' mobile-phone ownership and infant birth weight. The analytical sample comprises 108,103 mothers with complete birth-weight information out of 170,916 surveyed. OLS regressions with sequential adjustment for individual- and household-level confounders show that infants born to mobile-phone-owning mothers have higher birth weight. Mediation analyses suggest that associations are partly explained by a higher number of antenatal visits, greater likelihood of professional-assisted birth, and exposure to family-planning information via text message. Limitations include potential reverse causality due to lack of timing information on phone acquisition, selection bias since approximately 37% of mothers lack birth-weight data and tend to be poorer and less likely to own a phone, and the cross-sectional nature of the analyses. The authors note that estimates may understate the true association.
