FACILITY BASED UNDER-FIVE MORTALITY IN BRONG AHAFO REGION OF GHANA

ABSTRACT

BACKGROUND Mortality among children less than five years is a major public health problem in the developing world which includes sub-Sahara Africa. To develop an appropriate public health intervention, adequate knowledge in the trend and spatial distribution of mortality is required to enable in proper planning and execution of interventions. OBJECTIVE This study analysed the trend and Spatial distribution and clustering of facility-based Under-five mortality from 2013 to 2017 in the Brong Ahafo Region of Ghana. It also analysed the cause of death among under-fives for 2017. METHODS Secondary data analysis of DHIMS 2 data on facility-based under-five mortality from the Brong Ahafo Region was reviewed. Data that has been entered into the DHIMS 2 platform was extracted and analyzed with excel to observe the trend. All the 27 districts were used as geographical units for this study. GPS coordinates of the main referral health facility in districts were taken and under-five mortalities recorded for those districts was used to determine the geographical distribution of the cases. Arc GIS was used to determine the spatial distribution and clustering of facility-based under-five mortalities from 201 to 2017. These statistics test aided in the identification of clusters of under-five mortality. A further analysis was conducted on the cause of death with emphasis on the top ten causes for 2017. RESULTS Results of the study revealed with cases of facility-based under-five mortalities was low initially but increased drastically which was not consistent with what was reported in the literature. However, a continued reduction was observed from 2015 to 2017. Five districts were responsible for 63.1% of all U5 mortalities from 2013 to 2017.