Under-five Mortality in the Buea Health District; A Community-based Study of Rate, Causes and Age-specific Patterns

CaHReF 2016, Yaoundé Conges hall, 23 – 26 August 2016 , PP04

Faculty of Health Sciences, University of Buea

The under-five mortality rate (U5MR) remains high in Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA). In a resource-limited setting such as Cameroon, where child deaths are minimally reported, information on the leading causes of child mortality is deficient. Knowledge on causes and patterns of child mortality is essential for allocation of resources and planning interventions, in order to improve child survival beyond 2015.

The aim of this study was to assess the under-five mortality rate in the Buea Health District (BHD), as well as the causes and age-specific patterns.A community-based cross-sectional study was carried out in 2000 households, selected by a multi-stage sampling method. A structured questionnaire, which assessed birth, child death and main cause of death, through verbal autopsy, was administered.The number of live births registered between September 2004 and September 2009, as well as those of them who

died before the age of five years were recorded. The under-five mortality rate was calculated, and the causes of death were assigned by the InterVA-4 software. Data was analysed using Epi Info 7 software.

Two thousand, two hundred and ten live births, and 92 deaths before the age of 5 were recorded. The U5MR in the BHD was 42/1000 live births. The main causes of under-five mortality (U5M) were: neonatal causes (37%), malaria (28%) and pneumonia (15%). Neonatal deaths accounted for 43.5% of all under-five deaths.
Almost half of under-five deaths occurred during the neonatal period. There is therefore an urgent need to promote health interventions to improve essential neonatal care. Priority needs to be given to the prevention, and, early and effective treatment of neonatal conditions, malaria, and pneumonia.

Under-five mortality, verbal autopsy, cause of death, neonate, infant, child.