Journal of Pediatric Neurology and Medicine

Background: Neonatal mortality is the death of the neonate within the first month of life. Globally each year over four million neonates died within 28 days of birth. In Ethiopia, the prevalence of neonatal mortality is not proportional across regions as such the Amhara region was the second highest neonatal mortality with 54 deaths per 1000 live births. Therefore, this study aimed to investigate the prevalence and associated factors of neonatal mortality in Awi zone, Amhara region, Ethiopia.

Methods: A community-based cross-sectional study was conducted on 1299 randomly selected neonates for the current study from March to May 2020. A multistage sampling technique with logistic regression model was conducted in current study. Administered structured questioner, prepared by WHO in 2016, was used for data collection. SPSS version 25 software was used for analysis and data entry too.

Results: The risk of neonatal mortality in the study area was 20.9 per 1000 live births. Among the predictor variable; the preterm neonates (AHR=4.54, 95% CI: 1.57, 13.17, p-value=0.005), neonates borne from primiparous mother (AHR=4.21, 95% CI: 1.39, 12.7, p-value=0.011), neonates from mothers who had a previous neonatal history (AHR 3.50, 95% CI: (1.33, 9.20), p-value=0.011), neonates borne for mothers who did not have antenatal care (AHR=3.20, 95% CI: (1.10, 9.30), p-value=0.033), neonates whose delivery not at health institutes (AHR=4.17, 95% CI: (1.24, 14.08), p-value=0.02) and neonates born from mothers with an abortion history (AHR=4.60, 95% CI: (1.90, 11.32), p-value=0.001) had significant role for the existence of neonatal death in the study area.

Conclusion: The risk of neonatal death was significantly associated with mother’s order of birth, duration of pregnancy, antenatal care, history of neonatal mortality, place of delivery and history abortion. Health related education should be conducted for women of reproductive age to get the antenatal care service and to deliver at health institutes. Hence, it is important to encourage mothers to use antenatal care service and deliver in health institutions.