Morbidity, Mortality, and Associated factors among Preterm babies in the first seven days at Kawempe National Referral Hospital.

Abstract

Introduction: Preterm birth complications are responsible for a third of pediatric deaths under five years. In Uganda, the preterm birth rate is estimated at 13.6 per 1000 live births. There is a greater need to generate evidence on morbidity and mortality within the first seven days of preterm birth to inform the scale-up interventions that reduce mortality and morbidity among preterm babies in the first seven days. Objective: To assess the level of morbidity, mortality, and associated factors among preterm babies in the first seven days at Kawempe National Referral Hospital Methods: This was a cross-sectional study using both qualitative and quantitative methods. The study population were the preterm babies admitted at Kawempe national referral hospital during the study period.. Sample size (257) was calculated using Cochran’s sample size formula. Data was entered into Epidata version 3.1program and later exported to STATA for analysis. Results: The morbidity and mortality within seven days among preterm babies were 65.76% and 20.00% respectively. Preterm babies of mothers who were cohabiting (AOR 0.80;95% CI 0.64- 1.0), in a monogamous marriage (AOR 0.75;95% CI 0.61-0.93), in a polygamous marriage (AOR 0.78;95% CI 0.62-0.98), and those separated (AOR 0.74;95% CI 0.55-0.10), were all less likely to die in the first 7 days of birth. Babies with extremely low birth weight (AOR 1.35;95% CI 1.16- 1.56) and those whose mothers had a health condition during pregnancy (AOR 1.12;95% CI 1.05- 1.21) were more likely to die in the first 7 days of birth. Lastly, preterm babies with an APGAR score at 10 minutes of above seven (AOR 0.86;95% CI 0.79-0.93) and those with no birth defect (AOR 0.78;95% CI 0.67-0.91) are both less likely to die in the first 7 days of birth. Conclusion: Preterm baby morbidity and mortality are high among preterm babies in the first 7 days of birth at Kawempe national referral hospital, mostly as a result of maternal and preterm baby factors. Factors responsible include; extremely low birth weight, ill-health among mothers during pregnancy among others. Interventions addressing these factors while factoring in health facility issues may reduce preterm baby morbidities and mortalities.