Neonatal Mortality at Felege Hiwot Comprehensive Specialized Hospital in Ethiopia Over 5 years: Trends and Associated Factors.

BACKGROUND

Globally, neonatal mortality remains a serious catastrophic problem for newborns, particularly in a low-resource setting. There were no neonatal mortality trend studies in the study area.

OBJECTIVE

This study aimed to determine the trends and risk factors of neonatal mortality at the neonatal intensive care unit of Felege Hiwot Comprehensive Specialized Hospital, Northwest Ethiopia.

METHODS

An institution-based retrospective cross-sectional study was conducted among 870 admitted neonates from January 1, 2016 to December 31, 2020 in the neonatal intensive care unit by a stratified simple random sampling technique. Data were entered into EpiData and then exported to STATA 14.0 for analysis. A linear regression statistical model was used for trend analysis and binary logistic regression was carried out to identify explanatory variables of neonatal mortality.

RESULTS

Overall, neonatal mortality averagely increased by 2.1% per year throughout the 5 consecutive years. In this study, rural residency [adjusted odds ratio (AOR): 1.96, 95% confidence interval (CI): (1.26, 3.06)], birth asphyxia (AOR: 7.73, 95% CI: 4.31, 13.84), congenital deformity (AOR: 3.61, 95% CI: 1.17, 11.18), low birth weight (AOR: 2.13, 95% CI: 1.23, 3.67), respiratory distress syndrome (AOR: 3.32, 95% CI: 1.97, 5.59), Ambu-bag resuscitation (AOR: 0.16, 95% CI: 0.07, 0.38), taking antibiotics (AOR: 0.50, 95% CI: 0.27, 0.90), glucose (AOR: 0.47, 95% CI: 0.30, 0.72), and oxygen (AOR: 0.26, 95% CI: 0.16, 0.41) were associated with neonatal mortality.

CONCLUSIONS

This 5-year trend analysis revealed an increased trend of NMR, indicating more work is still needed to make progress toward meeting the SDG goal by 2030. Rural residency, birth asphyxia, congenital deformity, low birth weight, respiratory distress syndrome, Ambu-bag resuscitation, taking antibiotics, glucose, and oxygen were associated with neonatal mortality. Therefore, all stakeholders shall give due attention to reducing this timely-increasing trend of neonatal mortality.