Neonatal Mortality and Associated Factors among Neonates Admitted in Neonatal Intensive Care Unit of Bule Hora University Teaching Hospital, Oromia, Southern Ethiopia, Cross Sectional Study

Abstract

Introduction: Neonatal mortality remains a serious public health concern in low-income countries. In Ethiopia, the neonatal mortality rate has dropped only by 9% in the last 15 years. The most recent national-level report shows a rise in neonatal mortality rates from 29 in 2016 to 30 in 2019. There is no obvious explanation for the increase, and studies have found inconsistent findings. There-fore, this study aimed to determine the magnitude of neonatal mortality and its associated factors among neonates admitted to the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit of BuleHora University teaching hospital, Southern Ethiopia. Method: A facility-based cross-sectional study was conducted at BuleHora University teaching hospital. Data were extracted from 440 charts of neonates admitted to the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit of the hospital from July 1, 2017, to June 30, 2020. A pretested data extraction checklist was used to get the intended variable. Data was entered into Epi-data version 4.4.2 and exported to SPSS version 25.0 for analysis. A logistic regression model was used to determine factors and to control for confounders. Multicollinearity was checked between independent variables before multivariate analysis. A p-value of ≤0.05 was declared as statistically significant. Result: The proportion of neonatal mortality was 18.9%, among which 50% of the death occurred in the first 24hours of life. Age less than 14days (AOR 4.3(1.6, 11.2)), Neonates born at home (AOR, 4.6(2.3, 9.0)), APGAR score at the first 5 minutes of birth (AOR, 2.6(1.2, 5.6)), neonates born with congenital anomalies (AOR, 9.3(3.2, 26.7)), and Neonates born from mothers having no ANC visit (AOR, 2.7(1.5, 5.0)), were factors significantly associated with Neonatal Mortality. Conclusion: The findings show that nearly one in five (19%) of neonates admitted to the neonatal intensive care unitdied. In the study area, neonates 14 days old, born at home, APGAR score less than 5, congenital anomalies, and mothers who had no antenatal care visit were factors that were significantly associated with neonatal mortality. Thus, efforts should be made to increase antenatal care coverage and institutional delivery.