Sociodemographic Determinants of Outcome of Newborn Admission in Federal medical Center Owerri, Nigeria

Abstract

Introduction: There has been a global decline in infant mortality without an equivalent decline in newborn mortality. Several studies have investigated the influence of each disease entity on childhood mortality concluding that severity of the disease is a major contributor to outcome. However, only few studies have evaluated the influence of social factors in the outcome of newborn hospitalization. This study aimed to investigate the influence of social and some demographic factors on early neonatal hospital admission. Methods: The study was a descriptive retrospective cross-sectional review of clinical records of 170 newborn admitted in to the Special Care Baby Unit of Federal Medical Centre Owerri form May 2014-May 2015. Case files of all newborn admitted during this period were reviewed and data collated and analyzed using SPSS version 20. Chi-Squared and Odds Ratio were calculated. Results: a total of 170 newborn were admitted, 10 (6.0%) died while 157 (94.0%) were discharged, the outcome of three admissions were missing. Fathers' education and occupation play significant role in neonatal survival OR 3.23 (1.08-10.06) p-value 0.04 and OR 6.36 (1.83-22.17) p-value 0.004 respectively. Newborn of fathers' and mothers with paid employment had better outcome. Conclusion: This study demonstrated that paid employment is associated with better outcome of newborn admission.