Gravida and maternal age group effect on the weight of an infant

Abstract

This paper makes use of Two-way Analysis of Variance approach to check whether significant difference exists in the weight of an infant as it relates to gravida and maternal age or not. Five hundred and thirty-three (533) samples on the weight of an infant, maternal age and gravida sourced from Family Support Programme (FSP) Makurdi Benue State, Nigeria was used. Maternal age was divided into five (14-19, 20-25, 26-31, 32-37 and 38-43); the level of gravida (number of pregnancies) considered are gravida one (1), gravida two (2), gravida three (3) and gravida four (number of pregnancies greater than or equal to four). The results revealed that significant difference exist between the maternal age as it relates to the weight of an infant since the p_value of 0.0001 is less than 0.05 alpha level of significance. Significant difference was also seen in gravida since the p_value of 0.0001 is less than 0.05 alpha level of significance. As a result of significant difference observed in both maternal age and gravida, multiple mean comparison was carried out to identify the mean weight that actually differs. It was discovered that the mean weight of an infant in gravida four (4) is different from that of gravida one (1) and two (2), in addition, gravida 3 and 1 were statistically significant. Maternal age one (14-19) was also found to be different from every other age group.