Trend and Determinants of Mortality Among Women of Reproductive Age: A Twelve-Year Open Cohort Study in Eastern Ethiopia

Background: With only less than a decade left till 2030, it is essential to research the burden and trends of women of reproductive age (WRA) mortality in order to design appropriate interventions toward achieving goal three of the sustainable development goals (SDGs), good health and well-being. For several low-income countries, such data are often lacking or sometimes extrapolated from non-representative facility-based studies. In this paper, we presented trends, causes, and determinants of mortality among reproductive-age women under follow-up for 12 years through the Health and Demographic Surveillance System (HDSS) located in eastern Ethiopia. Methods: We used 12 years of (2008 to 2019) open cohort data of women aged 15–49 living in Kersa HDSS in Eastern Ethiopia. In the HDSS, data on socio-demographic and basic household conditions are recorded for every household member at enrollment, and data on vital events such as births, deaths, and migration were collected and updated biannually as the event happened. Mortality was determined by automated verbal autopsy (InterVA) algorism. We assessed trends in women's reproductive age mortality and the associated determinants using crude and adjusted Cox regression models. Results: In the 12-years cohort, we followed 74,790 women of reproductive age for 339,909.26 person-years-at-risk of observation (PYO), of whom 919 died. Overall, the standardized mortality rate was 270 per 100,000 PYO. There was a notable increase in mortality in the first 3 years (2009 to 2011) which then declined significantly (p = 0.0001) until 2019. Most of the deaths were caused by HIV/AIDS (27.88%) and pulmonary tuberculosis (10.62%). In the adjusted Cox regression analysis, the hazard of death was higher among rural residents (AHR, 2.03: 95% CI: 1.60–2.58), unemployed women (AHR, 1.50: 95% CI: 1.19–1.89), and women with no formal education (AHR, 1.24: 95% CI: 1.01–1.52). Conclusion: The study showed a high number of women of reproductive age are still dying mainly due to causes for which preventable strategies are known and have been successfully implemented. The study identified that the main causes of death were related to HIV/AIDS and tuberculosis, and there was a higher hazard of mortality among rural residents, unemployed women, and those with no formal education, who need effective implementation in achieving the SDG three.