Author(s)

Calixte Ida Penda^1,2,3*, Ritha Mbono Betoko^1,2, Danielle Kedy Koum^1,4, Essome Henri^5,6, Patricia Epée Eboumbou^1,7, Christelle Mpah Edimo², Eyoum Billè Bertrand^2,8, Charlotte Eposse^1,2, Olivier Koki Ndombo^9,10

¹Department of Clinical Sciences, Faculty of Medicine and Pharmaceutical Sciences, University of Douala, Douala, Cameroon.
²Department of Pediatrics, Laquintinie Hospital, Douala, Cameroon.
³General Hospital of Douala, Douala, Cameroon.
⁴Déido District Hospital, Douala, Cameroon.
⁵Department of Surgery, Faculty of Medicine and Pharmaceutical Sciences, University of Douala, Douala, Cameroon.
⁶Department of Gynecology, Laquintinie Hospital, Douala, Cameroon.
⁷Bonassama District Hospital, Douala, Cameroon.
⁸Faculty of Sciences, University of Dschang, Dschang, Cameroon.
⁹Department of Pediatrics, Faculty of Medicine and Biomedical Sciences, University of Yaoundé 1, Yaoundé, Cameroon.
¹⁰Chantal Biya Foundation, Mother-Child Centre, Yaoundé, Cameroon.

Background: Neonatal mortality remains a major public health problem in low income countries. The survival within the first 28 days of life remains a challenge in such countries. Many strategies have been implemented to reduce deaths in children under five especially in sub-Saharan Africa. Laquintinie Douala Hospital benefits from some of these measures including a perinatal network and an emergency voucher. We aimed to describe the main causes of neonatal deaths at Laquintinie Douala Hospital. Methods: We carried out a cross-sectional study including files of all deceased neonates in the neonatal unit during a 24 months period from January 1^st, 2017 to December 31^st, 2018. Data collection included socio-demographic characteristics of the mothers and the newborns, clinical and therapeutic data and the evolution of the newborn. We used SPSS 20 software for data analysis with a p-value less than 0.05. Results: We included 270 files with an overall mortality rate of 13.1% and a sex ratio of 1.2. The main causes of death included prematurity (37.8%), neonatal infection (34.1%) and neonatal asphyxia (24.4%). The main factors associated with deaths included informal sector (OR = 5.49; 95% CI 0.86 - 34.77; p = 0.07) and a primary level of education for mothers, malaria during pregnancy (OR 2.28; 95% CI, 1.44 - 3.12; p = 0.0001), very preterm babies (OR 6.45; 95% CI 4.68 - 8.89; p < 0.001) and resuscitation (OR 1.63; 95% CI 1.25 - 2.13; p = 0.0001). Conclusion: Neonatal mortality was lower than data in previous studies but remains high. This highlights the need for caregiver training and improvement of antenatal visits in our setting.

Newborn, Neonatal Mortality, Laquintinie Douala Hospital, Cameroon

Penda, C. , Betoko, R. , Koum, D. , Henri, E. , Eboumbou, P. , Edimo, C. , Bertrand, E. , Eposse, C. and Ndombo, O. (2021) Etiologies of Neonatal Mortality in a Tertiary Care Hospital in a Resource-Limited Setting. Open Journal of Pediatrics, 11, 268-280. doi: 10.4236/ojped.2021.112026.