Review of Childhood Mortality Pattern at the Paediatric Unit of a Teaching Hospital in Nigeria.

Background: The vital statistics in the third world countries are poor and have witnessed minimal improvement over the years with childhood mortality in Nigeria remaining one of the highest among the developing countries despite various child survival programmes. Child survival strategies can only be efficient if the major reasons for morbidity are known. The objective of this retrospective study was to review the patterns of childhood mortality at the emergency room of the Federal Teaching Hospital, Ido-Ekiti (FETHI).

Materials And Methods: This study was conducted at the Children Emergency room of FETHI. Admission, discharge records and the case notes of the patients who died from September 2017 to October 2022 at the emergency units were retrospectively reviewed to extract the data on the age, sex, diagnosis, and duration of stay on admission before demise. A p-value of <0.05 was accepted as statistically significant.

Results: There was a total of 2503 admissions with a M: F ratio of 1.25:1. The mortality rate was 3.9%. Age at demise was independent of the sex of the patients with a p-value of 0.33. More deaths occurred within six to 72 hours on admission and 68% of deaths in the EPU were U-5. Sepsis and malaria were the leading causes of death.

Conclusions: The high incidence of mortality among under-5 largely from preventable causes of death stresses the need to strengthen the existing childhood preventive measures.