Abstract:
Background: Globally, the first week of life is critical period involving loss of neonates‟ lives due to various morbid factors. The burden in much higher in developing countries.
The aim: To assess the parents‟ knowledge and associated factors regarding neonatal danger signs within neonatal period at the selected Health Centers in Kigali, Rwanda. Methods: Adopting the descriptive cross sectional and quantitative approach. The study was conducted in four health centers (Cornum, Kabusunzu, Rugarama and Butamwa) which are in one District Hospital located in Kigali, Rwanda. Sample size was 440 participants. The population was made of 209 parents with neonates attending four health centers. A probability sampling strategy was used by using proportionate stratified sampling. Instrument: A structured questionnaire was administered to the parents. The questionnaire composed by four parts: Socio-demographic data, obstetric factors, the source of information and questions on assessing parents‟ knowledge of neonatal danger signs. Data analysis: Frequencies, bivariate analysis and logistic regression were used for analysis. A p-value <0.05 was considered significant. Results: The findings showed that 33% participants had not information regarding neonatal danger signs and 67% of them had information about it, all of them knew at least one neonatal danger signs. 75.71% was able to list at least two signs. Not feeding was the common signs mentioned by participants 44.0%, high body temperature 24.9%, convulsions was 22.0%. Logistic regression was used to assess factors associated with parental knowledge of neonatal danger signs. Conclusion: The findings of this study showed that the parents‟ knowledge towards neonatal danger signs was low. Parents‟ education level, parity, ANC visits and HCP as source of information were significantly associated with parents‟ knowledge of neonatal danger signs. The findings indicated the need to enhance educational efforts of neonatal danger signs to parents both at the community and health facility level.
