Neonatal Mortality and Its Associated Factors among Neonates Admitted to Wollega University Referral Hospital Neonatal Intensive Care Unit, East Wollega, Ethiopia

Abstract

Ethiopia has a high neonatal mortality rate in spite of dearth of study. Therefore we aimed to assess magnitude and associated factors of neonatal mortality among neonates admitted to neonatal intensive care units of Wollega University Referral Hospital. Accordingly, a facility based cross-sectional study was conducted on 289 by reviewing medical records of neonates admitted to neonatal intensive care unit. The collected data were entered in to Epi data version 3.1 and Stata version 14 used for analysis. Variables with P-value  < 0.25 at with 95% confidence interval in binary logistic regression analysis were taken to the multiple logistic regression analysis. Finally, variables with Likewise, variable with P-value < 0.05 at 95% confidence interval in multiple logistic regression analysis were considered as statistically significant. Among 289 neonates admitted to neonatal intensive care unit, 53 (18.34 %) were died. Majority 42(79.25%) of those deaths occurred at ≤ 7 days of birth. Preterm [AOR 4.15, 95% CI (1.67-10.33)], neonates faced birth asphyxia [AOR 3.26, 95% CI (1.33-7.98)], neonates who developed sepsis [AOR 2.29 95% CI (1.01-5.20)] and neonates encountered with jaundice [(AOR 11.08, 95% CI (1.03-119.59)] were more at risk to die. In general, the magnitude of neonatal mortality among neonates admitted to neonatal intensive care unit was high. Gestational age (maturity of new born), birth asphyxia, neonatal sepsis and neonatal jaundice were predictors of neonatal mortality. Neonates admitted to neonatal intensive care unit with sepsis, jaundice, and birth asphyxia demand special attention to reduce neonatal mortality.