Abstract:

Introduction: Preterm birth complication is the leading cause of mortality in children under five worldwide. WHO estimates that 15 million babies born preterm yearly and more than a million die each year. In Tanzania, there is an increase of prematurity rate from 11.4% in 2014 up to 16.60% in 2016. Majority of preterm births have no clear risk factors therefore identifying factors shown to have an increased risk of preterm birth may have importance in designing an effective intervention strategy. Hence, this study aims to determine the patterns of prematurity clinical diagnosis and outcome of neonates at Bugando Medical Centre in Mwanza.

Methods: This was a hospital based cross-sectional study that was conducted at Bugando Medical Centre, between August 2022 to September 2022. Data were retrieved from Electronic Health Management System (EHMS). A data collection tool was used to collect social demographic and important clinical information. Data was coded and entered into IBM SPSS software version 20 for management and analysis.

Results: A total of 361 neonates records were included in this study. The mean gestation age was 32± 3 weeks. The mean birth weight 1597 ± 485 grams with 57.1% of infants having low birth weight. More than quarter (39.3%) were late premature. Only 12.7% were extremely premature infants (Table 1). More than half 222 (61.6%) low birth weight infants, 69 (19.1%) were very low birth weight, extremely low birth weight 70 (19.4%). Majority of neonates (33.3%) was diagnosed with respiratory distress syndrome (RDS) followed by Neonatal sepsis (20.7%) and Birth asphyxia (7.8%). Clinical outcome of most of patients was discharging (64%) while 36% died during the course of treatment.

Conclusion: The patterns of preterm birth in our study showed predominantly late premature birth. Early identification of risk factors during prenatal, improving service delivery, availability of equipment and capacity building will help to reduce prematurity associated mortality.