Facility Based Under-Five Mortality in Brong Ahafo Region of Ghana

Abstract

BACKGROUND Mortality among children less than five years is a major public health problem in the developing world which includes sub-Sahara Africa. To develop an appropriate public health intervention, adequate knowledge in the trend and spatial distribution of mortality is required to enable in proper planning and execution of interventions. OBJECTIVE This study analysed the trend and Spatial distribution and clustering of facility based Under-five mortality from 2013 to 2017 in the Brong Ahafo Region of Ghana. It also analysed the cause of death among under-fives for 2017. METHODS A secondary data analysis of DHIMS 2 data on facility based under-five mortality from the Brong Ahafo Region was reviewed. Data that has been entered into the DHIMS 2 platform was extracted and analyzed with excel to observe trend. All the 27 districts were used as geographical units for this study. GPS coordinates of the main referral health facility in districts was taken and under-five mortalities recorded for those districts was used to determine the geographical distribution the cases. Arc GIS was used to determine the spatial distribution and clustering of facility based under-five mortalities from 201 to 2017. This statistics test aided in the identification of clusters of under-five mortality. A further analysis was conducted on the cause of death with emphasis on the top ten causes for 2017. RESULTS Results of the study revealed with cases of facility based under five mortalities was low initially but increased drastically which was not consistent with what was reported in literature. However, a continues reduction was observed from 2015 to 2017. Five district were responsible for 63.1% of all U5 mortalities from 2013 to 2017. Five condition; intrauterine hypoxia and birth asphyxia, malaria, perinatal conditions, prematurity, pneumonia were responsible for 51.2% of cases. CONCLUSION Under-five mortality is reducing in the Brong Ahafo Region. majority of the U5 mortalities occurred in urban district. Only 10 out of 36 conditions were responsible for 68.6% of all U5 mortalities in 2017. Intrauterine hypoxia and birth asphyxia are the highest cause of under-five mortality.