A Descriptive Study of Under-five Mortality

Introduction: The under-five mortality is a global problem, which is an important indicator to, demonstrate the quality of health services in a region or a country. The under-5 mortality rate is the probability of dying before five years of age (per 1,000 live births). In the 1990s under-five mortality rate was 12,7 million, but it decreased to 6,2 million in 2015. In Afghanistan due, to more than forty years of war and internal conflict, low socio-economic status, and high level of illiteracy, the under-five mortality rate is very high.

Objective: This study aimed to determine the mortality rate and it’s causes in children under the age of five in Nangarhar Province.

Methods: This is a descriptive study conducted from 2018-2019 in Nangarhar University Teaching Hospital (NUTH). According to Health Management Information System (HMIS) data reports in the mentioned period, 9164 under five patients were admitted in the different wards of Nangarhar University Teaching Hospital.

Results: The mortality of 824 patients were recorded (824/9164) due to different causes, which contribute 9% of total mortality. Of the 824 deaths, 371 consisted of neonatal deaths, which make 45% of total mortality, the 55% (453/824) deaths have occurred between the age of 28 days and five years. The principal causes of neonatal deaths were 35 percent prematurity, 27 percent birth asphyxia, 24 percent sepsis, 8 percent malformation, and 6 percent was consisting of other diseases such as neonatal jaundice, neonatal tetanus, neonatal diarrhea, birth trauma, etc. In this, study the causes of death occurred in the age of 28 days to five years were 30 percent due to malnutrition, 22 percent pneumonia, 20 percent Diarrhea, 10 percent Measles, 6 percent Malaria, 8 percent Meningo-encephalitis and 4 percent due to other diseases like pertussis, poisoning, trauma, burns, pediatric cardiac disease, neoplastic disease, and others.

Conclusion: The data of our study has taken from the Health Management Information System (HMIS) department of the 2018-2019 years which was collected from different wards of Nangarhar University Teaching Hospital. The rate of under-five mortality was about 8.99 ~ 9%. The result of our study was different from other countries and the mortality rate may be changed from time to time. These changes belong to several factors such as variable definition, promotion of socio-economic status, risk factors, geographical situation, peoples’ education level, availability of health services, and preventive measures.