Essential newborn care practice and associated factors among Health professionals at rural Gedeo Zone, southern Ethiopia: Cross sectional study

Abstract

Background: The neonatal mortality (NM) accounts 43% of child mortality under 5 year in the globe, and 42% in Ethiopia. There is inadequate evidence concerning the new born care practice of health workers in rural Gedeo zone of southern Ethiopia. The main objective of this study was to assess the essential newborn care practice and associated factors among health workers at rural Gedeo zone.

Methods: An institution based cross-sectional study was conducted. A total of 233 health workers (using systematic random selection method) were participated. The EPI-info Version 3.5 for data entry and statistical package for social sciences (SPSS) version 20 software was used for data analysis. Significant association was declared by P-value of < 0.05 with a corresponding 95% confidence interval.

Result: a total of 233 medical professionals took part, with a 100% response rate. Of the 233 medical professionals, 24% had good essential newborn care practices at 95% CI (19.3, 28.9), and more than half, 76.0%, missed one or more crucial steps in the care of a new born. Essential newborn care practices were significantly correlated with older age [adjusted odds ratio (AOR) = 0.18; 95% CI (0.03, 1.12)], female sex [AOR = 3.08; 95% CI (1.07, 8.81)], supportive supervision [AOR =2.17; 95% CI (1.12, 4.19)], attending in-service training [AOR = 4.85; 95% CI (2.33, 10.10)], and being aware of the newborn’s complications [AOR = 1.98; 95% CI (1.01, 3.89)].

Conclusion: over three-fourths of medical personnel failed to perform at least one crucial newborn care technique. The results suggested that in order to improve the critical newborn care provided by the medical staff at rural health institutions in Gedeo Zone, supportive supervision, in-service training, and awareness of newborn complications should be strengthened.