Common Factors Associated With Child Deaths, at a Tertiary Care Centre in Irbid Government, Jordan

Understanding causes of death among children is crucial to decrease mortality rate. Identifying specific causes of under-five mortality help in developing possible prioritize preventive interventions. This study aimed to identify rates and common causes associated with child deaths in a Tertiary Care Centre in North Jordan.
At a retrospective study, death registration records and certificates were reviewed for children who died in years from 2010 to 2015, at a main hospital in Irbid government, Jordan. The data collected, was including date of birth, date of death, unit of admission, medical diagnosis and death cause as recorded by a physician in the death records.
According to the center's computerized death registration system, a total of 529 child deaths registered in the study period. The most related cause of child deaths was related to genetic and congenital anomalies (35%); followed by prematurity (24%), and non-communicable diseases (16%) which include cardiac, renal, respiratory and blood disorders, and cancer. Infectious diseases such as sepsis, pneumonia, encephalitis, diarrhea, meningitis, and hepatitis were the leading causes of deaths among 14% of the study sample; while, accidents including road traffic accidents, falling, blast injuries, burns, insect bites, suffocations, aspiration and sudden unexpected deaths were found to be the leading cause of 12% of total registered deaths. Child death rate was 19.2 per 1000 live births. Infant mortality rate (IMR) was 14.1 per 1000 live births, and 7.1 per 1000 live births was reported for neonates.
The largest contributor to child deaths was the congenital and genetic anomalies; while prematurity is the most killer of infants.