Prevalence of neonatal sepsis and associated factors amongst neonates admitted in arbaminch general hospital, arbaminch, southern Ethiopia, 2019

Background: There are an estimated 2.9 million deaths worldwide from sepsis every year (44% of them in children under 5 years of age) and one quarter of these are due to neonatal sepsis. According to global burden of neonatal sepsis about 6.9 million neonates were diagnosed with possible serious bacterial infection needing treatment from these 2.9 million cases of neonates needing treatment occur in sub-Saharan Africa. Method: An institution based cross sectional study with retrospective document review was conducted among neonates admitted to neonatal intensive care unit from December 2017 to December 2018 in arbaminch general hospital. Sample size was calculated by using single population proportion sample formula with a final sample size of 351. Data were collected a checklist. Using SPSS version 21 Binary and multiple logistic regressions have been used to observe the association between independent variables and dependent variable. Result: The magnitude of neonatal sepsis was 78.3%. APGAR<6,PROM> 18 hours and duration of labour>12 hours were positively associated with neonatal sepsis where as gestational age > 37 weeks and birth weight >2500 grams were protective factors as evidenced by statistical result of 2.33(0.205-0.33), 1.32(0.71-0.84), 1.20(0.70-0.95), 0.85(0.34-0.815) and 0.12(0.04-030) respectively. Conclusion and recommendation: The finding of this study shows that neonatal sepsis accounts the highest proportion cases amongst neonates admitted in the hospital. Gestational age, birth weight, APGAR score, PROM and duration of labour were found to be determinants of neonatal sepsis. Therefore, service utilization of mothers, early detection of risky situations and appropriate practice of newborn care can halt the problem.