FACTORS ASSOCIATED WITH MORTALITY AMONG LOW BIRTH WEIGHT NEONATES ADMITTED TO THE NBU OF THE MOI TEACHING AND REFERRAL HOSPITAL IN ELDORET, KENYA

Neonatal mortality is a very significant contributor of infant mortality in Kenya and also in the entire world. It accounts for 43% of the infant mortality in Kenya and has been shown to account for about 50% of the infant mortality in the developing world. This paper sought to determine the factors associated with mortality among the low birth weight neonates admitted to the NBU of MTRH. Across-sectional hospital based descriptive study was conducted at the newborn unit of the Moi Teaching and Referral Hospital (MTRH) among the neonates with a birth weight of less than 2500 grams and admitted to the newborn unit of MTRH. The data was analyzed using SAS institute version 9.1. A p-value of less than 0.05 was considered significant in all analyses. Descriptive statistics such as mean, standard deviation, median, range were used for the continuous variables while frequency listings were used for categorical variables. The most common diagnosis among the neonates was clinically diagnosed sepsis and respiratory distress syndrome. Other common diagnoses were jaundice, birth asphyxia, anaemia and apnoeic attacks. All the common morbidities were associated with very high mortalities. The place of delivery had a significant effect on the outcome of the neonates. The gender of the neonate had no effect on the survival of the neonate. There was a significant association between the diagnosis of respiratory distress syndrome and the gestational age and the birth weight. The study established that the major predictors of mortality in low birth weight neonates in MTRH include a low apgar score at 5 minutes, gestational age less than 28 weeks, birth weight < 1000gms, a diagnosis of respiratory distress syndrome, birth asphyxia and suspected sepsis. The hospital needs to put more emphasis on the care of the VLBW and ELBW neonates. This is the group that was associated with very high mortality rates in this study.