Abstract:
Abstract
Background: Infant and child death in developing countries constitute the
largest age category of mortality. Sub-Saharan Africa’s under-five mortality
rate is 75 percent greater than other regions in the world. With 10% of the
world’s population Africa provides 20 percent of the world’s live births and
41 percent of under-five deaths: the Amhara Regional State is one of those
areas in Ethiopia with highest U5 mortality (154 per 1000 live births) which
is greater than the national average 123 per 1000 live birth. Therefore; this
paper has tried to identify the determinant factors that affect under five
mortality in the study area.
Objective: Assessment of the magnitude and determinant factors of under
five mortality in Gondar Zuria Woreda.
Method: A community based cross- sectional quantitative study was
conducted from April to June 2011
Results: A total of 810 households (97.6%) participated in the study. The
total number of children born in the previous 5 years among these
households was 1290, consisted of 667 males (51.7%) and 623(48.3%)
females of under five children. The total number of deaths in these study
subjects was 167(12.95%). Main causes of deaths affecting these children
were malaria 48(28.74%), diarrhea 45(26.94%), respiratory infections
22(13.17%), pneumonia 18(10.78%) and others 34(20.36%) were due to
HIV/AIDS, TB, car and fire accidents etc. From the total deaths (167), the
highest numbers, 78(16.16%) out of 469 were reported from the children
between 0-1 year and the rest 89(11%) out of 821 were greater than one
year. In this study, mother’s education was found to be an independent
factor associated with under five mortality. Children born to mothers who
were illiterate were 6.16 times more likely to have under five death
compared to mothers whose educational status was secondary and above
[AOR: 6.16, 95% CI (2.21, 17.19)].
Conclusion and recommendation: Compared to Ethiopian demographic
health survey 2005, under five mortality has shown a slight decrement in
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the study area, but increased compared to 2011 EDHS(88 per 1000 live
births). Promoting the health education of mothers on low-cost health
measures like birth-spacing, breastfeeding, child immunization, safe
weaning, proper feeding during and after a child's illness, oral rehydration
therapy, and domestic hygiene are important to save the lives of many
children.
