Early outcomes and associated factors in neonates with extremely low birth weight at selected Referral Hospitals in Kigali, Rwanda

Abstract

Background: The prematurity, is the leading cause of childhood death and a global health challenge. Globally, 15 million babies are born prematurely every year. Purpose: To assess the early outcomes and associated factors of ELBW neonates at selected referral hospitals in Kigali/ Rwanda. Methods: A retrospective and descriptive cross-sectional design with quantitative approach was used. The study population included 108 ELBW neonates admitted in three referral hospitals in Kigali during the year 2020. A checklist was utilized to gather data and the statistical packages for STATA-12 was computed to analyze collected data. Analysis was descriptive statistics and Inferential statistics like, Chi-square test. Significance level of <.05 was considered as statistically significant. Findings: Findings from the present study showed that the proportion of ELBW neonate was 2.08%. Survivor and death of ELBW neonate were related to gestational age, birth weight and APGAR score. Death was found to be at 47.2% of all ELLBW neonates within 20 days, while 52.8% survived within 28 days. Surviving days were minimum 10 and 28 maximum). The minimum birth weight was 500grs and 1000grs for maximum with average of 881.32grs. The most mothers associated factors was malaria (10.1%), preeclampsia (38.8%) and, alcohol consumable (33.3%). The most major morbidity was infection (70.3%) and RDS (69.4%). Surviving was associated with receiving CPAP and being on ventilator machine (p<0.05). Conclusion: The present study findings revealed that ELBW proportion was high, survival rate was low, death rate was high and there were high morbidities in ELBW neonates. The more birth weight was low the less chance of surviving was. Also, advanced gestational age, receiving CPAP, being treated under ventilator machine were associated with survivor chance within 28 days. Recommendation: There should be innovative strategies in place such as availability of ventilator machine in all District and referral hospitals and conducting many researches on ELBW neonates’ outcomes and related factors would help to reduce morbidity and mortality in ELBW neonates.