Magnitude of Preterm Birth Admission, Immediate Outcomes and Their Predictors in Debre Markos Referral Hospital, North West, Ethiopia.

Abstract Background: Each year 15 million preterm babies are born. Pre-term birth complications account for 35% of the estimated 3.1 million global neonatal deaths and are the second leading cause of death in children less than 5 years aged.Objective: we assessed the magnitude of preterm birth admissions, immediate outcomes and their predictors in Debre Markos Referral Hospital, North West, Ethiopia, 2019. Methodology: An institutional based retrospective cross- sectional study design was conducted among 212 neonates registered from January 1, 2014, to January 1, 2019. Data was entered using Epidata version 3.1 and exported to SPSS version 20 for analysis. Bivariable and multivariable logistic regressional analysis were done. Variables with p value <0.05 in multivariate analysis were declared as statistically significant at a 95% confidence interval. Results: Out of 212 neonates involved in the study, 27.8% were preterm birth admissions. From this 36.3% of neonates was died before discharge. In the final multivariate analysis hypertension during pregnancy was significantly associated for preterm admissions (P= 0.013, AOR= 4.464, 95% CI: (1.375, 14.498)) and being extreme low and very low birth weight (P= 0.005, AOR= 2.107, 95% CI: (0.023, 0.508)) and those with low APGAR score (P= 0.016, AOR= 3.113, 95% CI: (0.019, 0.669)) was significantly associated with death before discharge. Conclusion: Preterm admissions accounted for a significant percentage of neonatal admissions with significant death outcomes. Maternal medical problems like hypertension during pregnancy, premature rupture of membrane had significant association for preterm admissions. Also, being extreme low weight and very low weight baby, low APGAR score had significant association with death outcome of preterm neonates. Therefor, strategies should be designed to prevent preterm birth and their complications. Special attention should be given for pregnant mothers having medical problems especially hypertension. Furthermore, health institutions should have organised ANC follow up for regular screening of pregnant mothers for medical and obstetric complications.