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ORIGINAL RESEARCH article

Front. Pediatr.
Sec. Neonatology
Volume 13 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/fped.2025.1380913

Prevalence and determinants of post-neonatal mortality in East Africa: A Multilevel Analysis of the Recent Demographic and Health Survey

Provisionally accepted
Alebachew Ferede Zegeye Alebachew Ferede Zegeye 1*Desale Bihonegn Asmamaw Desale Bihonegn Asmamaw 1Wubshet Debebe Negash Wubshet Debebe Negash 2Tadele Biresaw Belachew Tadele Biresaw Belachew 1Elsa Awoke Fentie Elsa Awoke Fentie 1Atitegeb Kidie Atitegeb Kidie 2Tsegaw Amare Baykeda Tsegaw Amare Baykeda 1Samrawit Mihret Fetene Samrawit Mihret Fetene 1Banchlay Addis Banchlay Addis 1Sisay Maru Sisay Maru 1Abel Endawkie Abel Endawkie 3Tadesse Tamir Tadesse Tamir 1
  • 1 University of Gondar, Gondar, Ethiopia
  • 2 Institute of Public Health, University of Gondar, Gondar, Amhara Region, Ethiopia
  • 3 Wollo University, Dessie, Amhara, Ethiopia

The final, formatted version of the article will be published soon.

    Background: One of the most common measures of society's health is mortality among neonates.Developing and developed countries still differ significantly in post-neonatal mortality rates.While there are about 18 post-natalneonatal deaths worldwide for every 1,000 live births during the first monthsmonth of life, less is known about post-natalneonatal mortality in developing countries, especially in East Africa. Understanding the extent of mortality during the post-neonatal period and its determinants is crucial for developing appropriate policies and strategies that could help solve the issue. Thus, the aim of this study was to identify the prevalence of post-neonatal mortality in East African countries and the factors that are associated with it.Method: Secondary data analysis was conducted using data from the most recent Demographic and Health Surveys, which included 11 East African countries between 2014 and 2022. A weighted sample of 225,635 live births had been used in the study. STATA/SE 14 was used for data analysis.The multilevel mixed-effects logistic regression model was applied to determine the factors associated with post-neonatal mortality. In the multilevel logistic regression model, significant factors were deemed to be associated with post-neonatal mortality at p-values <0.05. The data were interpreted using the adjusted odds ratio (AOR) and confidence interval (CI). The best-fit model has been found to be the one with the lowest deviance and highest logliklihood ratio.In eastEast Africa, one in ten post-neonates died before the first month of life.neonatal mortality was found to be 15 per 1000 live births. Pregnancy pregnancy type (AOR = 3.09, 95%

    Keywords: determinants, East Africa, Mortality, Post-neonatal, Prevalence

    Received: 13 Feb 2024; Accepted: 10 Jan 2025.

    Copyright: © 2025 Zegeye, Asmamaw, Negash, Belachew, Fentie, Kidie, Baykeda, Fetene, Addis, Maru, Endawkie and Tamir. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.

    * Correspondence: Alebachew Ferede Zegeye, University of Gondar, Gondar, Ethiopia

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