Magnitude and contributors of neonatal mortality among newborn admitted to Intensive Care Unit of Gimbi General Hospital, Western Ethiopia

Abstract

Background: Neonatal death remains a serious public health concern worldwide. The neonatal period is a high vulnerability time. As a result, neonates are subjected to high morbidity and mortality. More than 80% of neonatal mortality occurring in Ethiopia is due to preventable and treatable problems. However, there is a paucity of information on the magnitude of neonatal institutional death in the study setting. Therefore, this study aimed to determine the magnitude and determinants of Neonatal mortality among newborns admitted to the Intensive Care Unit of Gimbi General Hospital, Western Ethiopia, 2019.

Methods: A facility-based cross-sectional study was employed on 124 neonates admitted to the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU) at Gimbi General Hospital from 20 June 2019 to 20 February 2020, by collecting data retrospectively. Data was extracted from neonate’s records and death certificates using a pretested checklist. The data was entered into Epi-data version 3.1, cleaned, and exported to SPSS version 24 for final analysis. A Chi-square test was used to indicate association. A p-value of less than 0.05 was considered to decide the significance level statistically.

Results: The Magnitude of neonatal mortality was 14.5 % (95% CI (8.9-21-8). More than half of the newborns were males 75 (60.5%), and most were from rural areas 88%. Hypothermia (84.7%), Respiratory distress (52.4%), Meconium aspiration syndrome, and low birth weight were among the leading cause of neonatal admission, while early-onset neonatal sepsis, severe anemia, prematurity, birth trauma, and meconium aspiration syndrome are leading cause of neonatal death in Gimbi General Hospital. The majority of newborns were born between 37 and 42 gestational age, and more than half of newborns were delivered through spontaneous vertex delivery 67 (54%).

Conclusion: The magnitude of the institutional neonatal mortality rate at Gimbi General Hospital is significantly high, which strongly suggests the hospital should be cautious about reducing the incidents as well as work on factors like early neonatal sepsis, prematurity, anemia, meconium aspiration, birth trauma, and respiratory distress as they are reported as the major reason for death.