Early Neonatal Death in Northern Ethiopia and its Predictors

Background: Globally 2.5 million children died in the first month of life in 2017. There are approximately 7 000 newborn deaths every day, amounting to 47% of all child deaths under the age of 5-years, up from 40% in 1990. In Ethiopia neonatal mortality was 29 deaths per 1,000 births in 2016 and in Tigray it was 34 deaths per 1000 lives. As a result this study will assess incidence and predictors of early neonatal death in the region which is not well studied yet. Methods: facility based prospective cohort study design among 480 pregnant mothers was applied. Cox proportional hazard model were used to determine the independent predictors of Preterm birth. All analyzes were performed using SPSS version 20. Result: The overall incidence of early neonatal death is 4.3%. But the incidence among mothers with short inter-pregnancy interval is 10.1%. This study shows that, predictors for early neonatal death are low birth weight (Adjusted Hazard Ratio (AHR): 9.867, 95% confidence interval (CI): 1.891-51.487), less than seven Apgar score (AHR: 7.13, 95% CI: 1.290-39.432), any problem during her pregnancy (AHR: 7.699, 95% CI: 1.250-47.429) and no PNC follow up till third day (AHR: 7.076, 95%CI: 1.047-47.829). Conclusion: The incidence of early neonatal death is higher when it is compared with most of the studies done in Africa. And the main predictors are birth weight, Apgar score, any problem in current pregnancy, PNC follow up till third day and Baby hospital stay. Therefore, health providers should focus on giving care for those neonates who born with low birth weight, low Apgar score, stay for long time in hospital and those neonates from mothers with any complication during their pregnancy. In addition health providers should counsel and encourage mothers to have full PNC follow up after delivery.