Prevalence and Causes of Neonatal Mortality Among Neonates Admitted in Neonatal Intensive Care Unit at Sultan Hassan Yabare Referral Hospital, East Ethiopia 2019

Despite the fact that progresses in reducing child mortality, neonatal survival remains an urgent concern it estimated that the reduction in neonatal mortality was comparatively low; Ethiopia continues to have one of the highest rates of neonatal deaths in Africa with the rate of 29 deaths per 1000 live births. Thus, updated information about the prevalence and causes of neonatal mortality is very decisive for policies consequently improve services and lead to better health for newborns by training health care providers. Therefore, the objective of this study was to assess neonatal death and its possible causes among Neonates Admitted in Neonatal Intensive Care Unit at Sultan Hassan Yabare Referral Hospital, East Ethiopia. An institution based Retrospective cross-sectional study design was conducted in NICU at Sultan Hassan Yabare Referral Hospital from August 1 to August 30, 2019. Data was collected using structured questionnaire adapted from other related literatures. Then the Collected data were cleaned, coded and entered into Epidata 3.1 and exported, to SPSS version 23.0 for cleaning and analyses, data were presented, by using simple frequency tables, percentages and graphs. Prevalence of neonatal mortality on neonates admitted to the NICU at Sultan Hassan Yabare Referral Hospital was 20.5% (95% CI: 16.47-25.53). The current study sepsis (29.5%), multi organ failure and premature related (11.5%) followed respiratory failure and hypoglycemia (7.7%) and low birth weight as well as congenital anomalies and hypothermia (6.4%) were the main causes of neonatal mortality. This study revealed that neonatal mortality is still high in NICU at Sultan Hassan Yabare Referral Hospital. Sepsis, multi organ failure, premature related, respiratory failure and hypoglycemia accounted among major causes. Therefore, effective management of neonatal illness, neonatal infection prevention and interventions on maternal health with training of caregivers in neonatal resuscitation plus improved of newborns care were recommended to reduce neonatal mortality and improve neonatal survival.