Publication:

Mortality audit in the paediatrics department of the University of Uyo teaching hospital, Uyo, Nigeria

Background There has been a world-wide reduction in under-five mortality rate since 1990 by almost half. Despite this global reduction, about 17,000 children under the age of five years die daily, and a significant proportion of these deaths occur in sub-Saharan Africa, with Nigeria having an U5MR of 117/1,000 live births. The study aims to identify the age at death and cause of death of hospitalized children in this center, as well as describe the pattern of mortality.

Methods The study was conducted at the Department of Paediatrics of the University of Uyo Teaching Hospital (UUTH), Uyo, Akwa Ibom State, Nigeria, and it was a descriptive, cross-sectional and retrospective review of all the deaths among the hospitalized children from 1st January 2009 to 31st December 2014. Case files of all in-patient deaths during the period under review were studied.

Results A total of 772 deaths were recorded during the period under review. Of these 772 deaths, 453 (58.7%) were males and 319 (41.3%). Four hundred and thirty nine deaths (56.9%) were among children aged less than one month. More of the deaths occurred at about the month of March, while cumulative deaths were highest in the 15th hour of the day. The leading causes of death were prematurity, asphyxia, bronchopneumonia, septicaemia, severe malaria and malignancies.

Conclusions This study demonstrates that childhood mortality is still high, with the common causes of death being the preventable and treatable infectious diseases.