<p>Mother’s Knowledge of Neonatal Danger Signs and Health-Seeking Practices and Associated Factors in Debretabor, Northwest Ethiopia: A Community-Based Cross-Sectional Study</p>

Abstract

Background: Neonatal mortality is still unacceptably high in Ethiopia. One key strategy to cut back neonatal mortality is increasing the mother's knowledge of neonatal danger signs and health-seeking practices. This study assessed mother's knowledge of neonatal danger signs and health-seeking practices and associated factors in Debretabor town, Northwest Ethiopia. Methods: A community-based cross-sectional study was conducted from July 1st to August 10th in Debretabor town, northwest Ethiopia and cluster sampling technique was used to select 772 mothers. A semi-structured, pretested and interviewer-administered questionnaire was employed. Data were entered into epi info version 7 and analyzed by SPSS 23. Multivariable logistic regression model was fitted to identify factors associated with' mother's knowledge of neonatal danger signs and health-seeking practices. Odds ratio with 95% confidence interval was computed to determine the level of significance. Results: Mother's knowledge of neonatal danger signs and health-seeking practices was 36.5% (95% CI: 33, 40) and 78.7% (95% CI: 72.9, 83.7) respectively. Media exposure (AOR=2.85; 95% CI: 1.47, 5.53), birth preparedness (AOR=9.06; 95% CI: 5.99, 13.7), husband involvement (AOR=1.45; 95% CI: 1.04, 2.11), increased parity (AOR=2.46; 95% CI: 1.16, 5.19), whose neonate developed danger signs (AOR=1.83; 95% CI: 1.25, 2.67) and higher educational status (AOR=2.88; 95% CI: 1.45, 5.69) were factors significantly associated with mother's knowledge of neonatal danger signs. Furthermore, having good knowledge of neonatal danger signs (AOR=4.0; 95% CI: 1.63, 9.8), being autonomous (AOR=4.35; 95% CI: 1.63, 11.6), media exposure (AOR=3.06; 95% CI: 1.08, 8.63), and husband involvement (AOR=3.53; 95% CI: 1.49, 8.33) were factors statically significant with health-seeking practices of mothers for neonatal danger signs. Conclusion: Our findings show that maternal knowledge of neonatal danger signs was low. Promotion of mother's decision-making power, birth preparedness, husband involvement and mass media throughout the maternal continuum of care will have a great role in improving mother's knowledge of neonatal danger signs and health-seeking practices.

Knowledge of neonatal danger signs and associated factors among mothers attending pediatric immunization clinics in Gidan District Health Centers, North Wollo, Ethiopia

“…Multiparous mothers have prior child health experiences and will also have previous ANC and PNC follow-ups, which will contribute to the greater understanding of newborn health problems. Similar findings were found in other studies in Harar Ethiopia [36], Northwest Ethiopia [18], and Rwanda [35].…”

“…Good and poor knowledge of NDSs: The mother who could mention at least three WHO-listed new-born danger signs were categorized as having good knowledge of NDSs, while the mother who mentioned less than three WHO-listed new-born danger signs were categorized as having poor knowledge of NDSs [11,15,18,21,24,25].…”

“…The data were collected using a pretested, structured, and interviewer administered Amharic version questionnaire which was adapted and modified from previous studies and WHO guidelines [6,11,15,18,21,24,25,26,27]. The questionnaire comprises three sections (I) sociodemographic characteristics of the respondents (II) maternal reproductive health characteristics, and (III) neonatal danger signs related items.…”

“…Additionally, various factors that had a significant association with maternal knowledge of neonatal danger signs were also identified. Of these, age, occupation, maternal level of education, fathers' educational level, residence, availability of Radio or Television (TV), antenatal care (ANC) follow-up, spousal involvement during ANC, place of delivery, postnatal care (PNC) follow-up, higher decision-making ability, birth preparedness, information about neonatal danger signs, gravidity, previous experience of neonatal danger signs (NDSs), and counseling on newborn care are among them [9,10,11,12,13,14,15,16,17,18,19,20,21]. Early identification of neonatal danger signs is an important step toward improving newborn survival [15].…”

“…Early identification of neonatal danger signs is an important step toward improving newborn survival [15]. Furthermore, various studies indicated that knowledge of neonatal danger signs had a significant association with the treatment-seeking behavior of the mothers [18,22]. However, in Ethiopia, besides the attempts made to scale-up the maternal and child health services, maternal knowledge of neonatal danger signs remains low [10,11,12,13,15,16,17,18,19,20,21,23].…”