Neonatal sepsis risk factors in public hospitals in Wollega zones, Ethiopia: case control study

Abstract

INTRODUCTION: Globally, neonatal death accounts for almost half of the under-five children´s mortality rate. In Ethiopia, neonatal sepsis is among the leading causes of neonatal morbidity and mortality. Several studies had assessed the prevalence and associated factors of neonatal sepsis in Ethiopia. However, limited studies examined the risk factors of neonatal sepsis. Therefore, this study aimed to assess maternal and neonatal risk factors for neonatal sepsis among neonates admitted to the neonatal intensive care unit of the selected public hospitals in Wollega Zones. METHODS: hospitals based case-control study was conducted in public hospitals in Wollega zones among 300 newborns admitted to neonatal intensive care units with their index mothers. Cases were diagnosed with one of the newborn danger signs and by hematologic criteria suggestive for neonatal sepsis. Controls were neonates admitted with other medical diagnoses and do not fulfill neonatal sepsis criteria. The consecutive sampling technique was employed to collect data from the study subjects using a 1:1 ratio for cases and controls. The data were entered into Epi Data version 3.1 and exported to SPSS version 20 for analysis. The binary logistic regression model was used to identify a significant predictor of cases at p-value