Community-Based Essential Newborn Care Practices and Associated Factors among Women of Enderta, Tigray, Ethiopia, 2018

Abstract EN

Introduction.

Neonatal mortality contributes a higher percentage of infant mortality, especially in developing countries including Ethiopia where the rate of institutional delivery is low.

In Ethiopia, scientific evidences on the level of community-based essential newborn care practice were scanty and inconclusive.

Objectives.

The aim of the study was to assess community-based essential newborn care practices and associated factors among women who have infant<12 months.

Methods.

A community-based cross-sectional study was employed among 634 randomly selected women who have infant<12 months from June 23, 2017, to August 29, 2017, at Enderta district.

Data was collected by a face-to-face interview through structured questionnaires, and it was coded, entered, and cleaned using EpiData version 3.1.

Then, the data was exported to SPSS version 21 for analysis.

Odds ratios and p value were computed to know the association between the independent variables with the dependent variable.

Finally, a variable at p values of p<0.05 was considered statistically significant with the outcome variable.

Result.

The overall community-based essential newborn care practice was found 40.7%.

Educational status (AOR=6.6, 95% CI, 2.49-11.97), previous ANC follow-up (AOR=1.7, 95% CI, 1.2-3.80), weight of the child during birth (AOR=1.3, 95% CI, 1.12-2.98), and place of delivery (AOR=2.1, 95% CI, 1.50-4.63) were found to be significantly associated with community-based essential newborn care.

Even though overall newborn practice was found to be good, the cord care practices were found to be poor that indicated there is a need to rise community awareness.