Determinants of birth asphyxia among newborns delivered in public hospitals of West Shoa Zone, Central Ethiopia: A case-control study

Birth asphyxia is one of the leading causes of death in low and middle-income countries and the prominent cause of neonatal mortality in Ethiopia. Early detection and managing its determinants would change the burden of birth asphyxia. Thus, this study identified determinants of birth asphyxia among newborns delivered in public hospitals of West Shoa Zone, central Ethiopia. A hospital-based unmatched case-control study was conducted from May to July 2020. Cases were newborns with APGAR (appearance, pulse, grimaces, activity, and respiration) score of <7 at first and fifth minute of birth and controls were newborns with APGAR score of ≥ 7 at first and fifth minute of birth. All newborns with birth asphyxia during the study period were included in the study while; two comparable controls were selected consecutively after each birth asphyxia case. A pre-tested and structured questionnaire was used to collect maternal socio-demographic and antepartum characteristics. The pre-tested checklist was used to retrieve intrapartum and fetal related factors from both cases and controls. The collected data were entered using Epi-Info and analyzed by SPSS. Bi-variable logistic regression analysis was done to identify the association between each independent variable with the outcome variable. Adjusted odds ratio (AOR) with a 95% CI and a p-value of <0.05 was used to identify determinants of birth asphyxia. In this study, prolonged labor (AOR = 4.15, 95% CI: 1.55, 11.06), breech presentation (AOR = 5.13, 95% CI: 1.99, 13.21), caesarean section delivery (AOR = 3.67, 95% CI: 1.31, 10.23), vaginal assisted delivery (AOR = 5.69, 95% CI: 2.17, 14.91), not use partograph (AOR = 3.36, 95% CI: 1.45, 7.84), and low birth weight (AOR = 3.74, 95% CI:1.49, 9.38) had higher odds of birth asphyxia. Prolonged labor, breech presentation, caesarean and vaginal assisted delivery, fails to use partograph and low birth weights were the determinants of birth asphyxia. Thus, health care providers should follow the progress of labor with partograph to early identify prolonged labor, breech presentation and determine the mode of delivery that would lower the burden of birth asphyxia.