Causes of Death of Children Under Five Years in the Upper Manya Krobo District Using Verbal Autopsy in the Eastern Region- Ghana

Abstract

Background: Data required to estimate cause of death, disease, and death pattern are rare in sub-Saharan Africa. These data are vital for targeting, monitoring, and evaluating health interventions. Objective: To determine the cause of death of children under five years in the Nutrition Links Study, implemented in the Upper Manya Krobo District in the Eastern region of Ghana . Design: Data used were generated from verbal autopsy interviews conducted for key informants related to 30 children under five years, who were recruited into the nutrition links project in the Upper Manya Krobo District. The deaths of these children were reported to the project between 2013 and2017. The WHO 2012 verbal autopsy tool was used to interview respondents. District DHIMS data on child mortality was also examined for comparison of mortality rates. Results: The district data reported the incidence rate of under-five deaths between 2013 and 2016 as 3.5 per 1000 live births in the Upper Manya Krobo district in the Eastern region-Ghana . The Nutrition links project, however, recorded a total of 27.5 deaths per 1000 infants recruited into the nutrition links project. Malaria was the most common (35,5%) cause of death for children under five years, followed by Human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) disease (22.6%), and pneumonia (9.7%). The rest of the causes of death were unspecified neoplasms (6.5%) accidental poisoning (6.5%), and exposure to noxious substances (6.5%); meningococcal infection, anaemias, and congenital malformations were also diagnosed using verbal autopsy. some of the conditions were classified as Symptoms, signs of abnormal clinical presentation, and unspecified infectious disease. Conclusions: Malaria and HIV/AIDS were the main causes of death in children enrolled in the Nutrition Links project and who died between 2014 and 2017. Verbal autopsy data can help understand the causes of mortality in poorly resourced settings where access to timely and accurate mortality data is not available.