Skip to main content
Key Specialties
Cardiology Diabetology Endocrinology Gastroenterology Geriatrics and Gerontology Gynecology and Obstetrics Hematology Infectious Disease Internal Medicine Nephrology Neurology Oncology Pediatrics Respiratory Medicine Rheumatology Surgery
Congress Coverage
2024 ACC Congress 2023 ESMO Congress 2023 EASD Congress 2023 ERS Congress 2023 ESC Congress 2023 EHA Congress 2023 ASCO Annual Meeting
Clinical Collections
Advances in Alzheimer’s

At a glance: The ONWARDS insulin icodec trials

A round-up of the ONWARDS phase 3 clinical trials evaluating the novel weekly insulin icodec in people with diabetes.
ADVANCED SEARCH
Log in
Top
BMC Pediatrics
Published in: BMC Pediatrics 1/2016

Open Access 01-12-2016 | Research article

Early days of life are crucial for child survival in Gamo Gofa Zone, Southern Ethiopia: A community based study

Authors: Girma Temam Shifa, Ahmed Ali Ahmed, Alemayehu Worku Yalew

Published in: BMC Pediatrics | Issue 1/2016

Login to get access

Abstract

Background

Though, Ethiopia has shown progress in the reduction of under-five mortality in the last few years, the problem of neonatal and under-five mortality are still among the highest in the world and that warrants continuous investigation of the situation for sustained interventions to maintain the reduction beyond the millennium development goals. Therefore, this study was conducted with the objective of determining the magnitude of childhood mortalities in the designated community.

Method

A census of 11 kebeles (lowest administrative units in Ethiopia) of Arba Minch Town and 11 kebeles of Arba Minch Zuria District, which were not part of Arba Minch Demographic Surveillance System (DSS), had been done in order to identify all children (alive and dead) born between September 01, 2007 and September 30, 2014. Besides, all children born after July 01, 2009 were tracked from the data base of the Arba Minch DSS. Descriptive analyses with frequency and cross tabulation with the corresponding confidence interval and p-value were made using SPSS 16 and STATA 11. Extended Mantel-Haenszel chi-square for linear trend was also performed to assess presence of linear trend through the study period using open-Epi version 2.3.

Result

A total of 20,161 children were included for this analysis. The overall weighted under five, infant and neonatal mortalities with their corresponding 95 % confidence intervals were: 42.76 (39.56-45.97), 33.89 (31.03-36.76) and 18.68 (16.53-20.83) per 1000 live births, respectively. Majority of neonatal deaths occurred within the first 7 days of life. Under-five mortality was found to be significantly higher among non-DSS rural kebeles, overall rural kebeles and females.

Conclusion

Significant number of children died during their early days of life. Strengthening of maternal and child health interventions during pregnancy, during and immediately after birth are recommended in order to avert majorities of neonatal deaths.
Literature
1.
2.
3.
Ethiopia Demographic and Health Survey: Addis Ababa, Ethiopia and Calverton, Maryland, USA: Central Statistics Agency and ORC Macro. 2011.
4.
Adewuya AO, Hanlon C, Medhin G, Dewey M, Alem A, Worku B, et al. Perinatal common mental disorders and child survival in Ethiopia. J Paediatr Child Health. 2014;50(1):57–63.CrossRefPubMed
5.
Okwaraji YB, Cousens S, Berhane Y, Mulholland K, Edmond K. Effect of geographical access to health facilities on child mortality in rural Ethiopia: a community based cross sectional study. PLoS One. 2012;7(3):e33564.CrossRefPubMedPubMedCentral
6.
Yigzaw M, Enquselassie F. Birth Spacing and Risk of Child Mortality at Kalu District South Wollo Zone of Amhara Region, North East Ethiopia. Ethiop Med J. 2010;48(2):105–15.PubMed
7.
Amare D, Fasil T, Belaineh G. Determinants of under-five mortality in Gilgel Gibe Field Research Center, Southwest Ethiopia. Ethiop J Health Dev. 2007;21(2):117–24.
8.
Biks GA, Berhane Y, Worku A, Gete YK. Exclusive breast feeding is the strongest predictor of infant survival in Northwest Ethiopia: a longitudinal study. J Health Popul Nutr. 2015;34:9. doi:10.​1186/​s41043-015-0007-z.PubMed
9.
Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia Central Statistical Agency. Population Projection of Ethiopia for All Regions: At Wereda Level from 2014 – 2017. 2013, Addis Ababa, Ethiopia.
10.
Lohr SL. Sampling: Design and Analysis. Pacific Grove: Brooks/Cole; 1999.
11.
12.
Tafese B, Desalegn K, Tigist F, Tsehai A, Tadese F, Tesfaye H, Menen Z. Effect of Nutrition Education on Feeding Practices and Nutritional Status of 6-23 Months Old Children at Demba Gofa and Geze Gofa Woredas, Gamo Gofa Zone, SNNPR. Research abstract presented on Ethiopian Public Health institution’s research finding dissemination workshop. URL: http://​www.​ephi.​gov.​et/​images/​pictures/​PPT_​Tafese.​pdf (Accessed on July 2 2015).
13.
14.
Ngoc NT, Merialdi M, Abdel-Aleem H, Carroli G, Purwar M, Zavaleta N, et al. Causes of stillbirths and early neonatal deaths: data from 7993 pregnancies in six developing countries. Bull World Health Organ. 2006;84(9):699–705.CrossRefPubMedPubMedCentral
15.
Allanson ER, Muller M, Pattinson RC. Causes of perinatal mortality and associated maternal complications in a South African province: challenges in predicting poor outcomes. BMC Pregnancy Childbirth. 2015;15:37.CrossRefPubMedPubMedCentral
16.
Ersdal HL, Mduma E, Svensen E, Perlman J. Birth asphyxia: a major cause of early neonatal mortality in a Tanzanian rural hospital. Pediatrics. 2012;129(5):e1238–43.CrossRefPubMed
17.
18.
Malwade BA. Is Discrimination in Food Really Necessary for Explaining Sex Differentials in Childhood Mortality? Popul Stud. 1989;43(2):193–210.CrossRef
19.
Koenig MA, D’Souza S. Sex differences in childhood mortality in rural Bangladesh. Soc Sci Med. 1986;22(1):15–22.CrossRefPubMed
20.
Muhuri PK, Preston SH. Effects of Family Composition on Mortality Differentials by Sex Among Children in Matlab, Bangladesh. Popul Dev Rev. 1991;17(3):415–34.CrossRef
21.
22.
Sheth M, Obrah M. Diarrhea prevention through food safety education. Indian J Pediatr. 2004;71(10):879–82.CrossRefPubMed
23.
Mohan A, Nassir H, Niazi A. Does routine home visiting improve the return rate and outcome of DOTS patients who delay treatment? East Mediterr Health J. 2003;9(4):702–8.PubMed
24.
Streatfield PK, Khan WA, Bhuiya A, Hanifi SM, Alam N, Ouattara M, et al. Cause-specific childhood mortality in Africa and Asia: evidence from INDEPTH health and demographic surveillance system sites. Glob Health Action. 2014;7:25363. URL: http://​www.​ncbi.​nlm.​nih.​gov/​pubmed/​25377325. (Accessed on Jan 12, 2016).
Metadata
Title
Early days of life are crucial for child survival in Gamo Gofa Zone, Southern Ethiopia: A community based study
Authors
Girma Temam Shifa
Ahmed Ali Ahmed
Alemayehu Worku Yalew
Publication date
01-12-2016
Publisher
BioMed Central
Published in
BMC Pediatrics / Issue 1/2016
Electronic ISSN: 1471-2431
DOI
https://doi.org/10.1186/s12887-016-0568-z

Other articles of this Issue 1/2016

BMC Pediatrics 1/2016 Go to the issue

Research article

Varicella vaccine without human serum albumin versus licensed varicella vaccine in children during the second year of life: a randomized, double-blind, non-inferiority trial

Research article

Socioeconomic and sociodemographic factors related to allergic diseases in Korean adolescents based on the Seventh Korea Youth Risk Behavior Web-based Survey: a cross-sectional study

Research article

Non-alcoholic fatty liver disease (Nafld) in obese children- effect of refined carbohydrates in diet

Research article

Unintentional childhood injury: a controlled comparison of behavioral characteristics

Research article

Frequencies of CYP2C9 polymorphisms in North Indian population and their association with drug levels in children on phenytoin monotherapy

Research article

Predictors of increasing injury severity across suspected recurrent episodes of non-accidental trauma: a retrospective cohort study