The effect of mother’s age on neonatal survival associated with first and second birth in rural, Tanzania

Majige B. Selemani, Ifakara Health Institute (IHI)
Mathew Alexandre, Ifakara Health Institute (IHI)
Dan Kajungu, INESS
Abdallah Mkopi, Ifakara Health Institute (IHI)
Sigilbet Mrema, Ifakara Health Institute (IHI)
Rose Nathan, Ifakara Health Institute (IHI)

With a view to improve neonatal survival, data on birth outcomes are very important to plan maternal and child health care services. We present information on neonatal survival from Ifakara Health and Demographic Surveillance System(HDSS) in Tanzania, regarding the influence of neonatal survival. We conducted analysis using data collected from Ifakara HDSS which collect routinely data from Kilombero and Ulanga districts in Morogoro region. The data collection involves continues recording of vital events within households and among members over time. The analysis includes all births occurred between 2004 to 2009 and unit of observation was live birth. We used survival analysis to compare the survival of neonatal between different factors. In this analysis, we included 12, 721 newborn reported in the HDSS between 2004 and 2009. The neonatal mortality rate were 33 per 1000 live births(95%CI: 30/1000-36/1000) for the period. Using Cox proportional hazard model, we found strong significant association between neonatal survival and mothers’ age less than 20 year at delivery(p=0.00,HR=1.28,95%CI=1.11-1.47), first birth order (p=0.00, HR=0.66: 95%CI=0.57-0.75) and co-residence of husband (p==0.00,HR=0.76: 95%CI 0.66-0.88). While Sex of new born, Social economic status, place of delivery, season and maternal education were not significant association with neonatal survival. Improvement of neonatal survival in developing countries should be to increase knowledge on teenagers to delay giving birth and improve care service to pregnancy women, with great potential for impact of neonatal survival.