Introduction: Globally, burden of child mortality continues to decline especially
in the last two decades. However, despite this global decline in child mortality,
Nigeria continues to contribute disproportionate amount of child deaths
contributing around 13% of the global child deaths in 2013. Of the total child
deaths, around 44% occur in the first six days of life (early neonatal period).
Preventing early neonatal death is critical in reducing child mortality. In Nigeria,
early neonatal mortality rate is one of the highest estimated at 32 per 1000live
births.
Materials and methods: This analysis utilized data from the 2013 Nigeria DHS.
The 2013 survey consists of nationally representative sample of 38,948 women
aged 15-49 years and 17,359 men aged 15-59 years living in 38,904 households.
The statistical model for investigating the factors influencing early neonatal
mortality is the Cox proportional hazards regression model. The analysis was
conducted using State v13.0.
Results: In the five years preceding the survey, there were 119, 024 live
births and 3772 early neonatal deaths translating to early neonatal mortality
rate (ENNMR) of 32 per 1000 live births. Based on the adjusted hazard ratio,
utilization of focused ANC (aHR=0.60, 95% CI: 0.52-0.70), utilization of postnatal
care within two days of delivery (aHR=0.87, 95% CI: 0.80-0.96); while factors
that significantly increased the risk of early neonatal death include residing in
rural area (aHR=1.31, 95% CI: 1.18-1.46), being a large baby (aHR=1.17, 95% CI:
1.05-1.30) and a mother experiencing pregnancy complication (aHR=1.28, 95%
CI: 1.14-1.44).
Conclusion: Early neonatal mortality rate in Nigeria is high. Several factors have
been found to significantly reduce the risk of early neonatal mortality such as
utilization of antenatal and postnatal care. Factors that increased risk of early
neonatal mortality are rural residence, being a large baby and having had
pregnancy complications. Therefore, it is recommended that utilization of ANC
and postnatal care should be expanded to allow increased access and utilization.