Prevalence and determinants of neonatal hypothermia in a tertiary hospital, Gondar Ethiopia: a cross-sectional study

Neonatal hypothermia is a significant global problem of neonates with huge contribution of neonatal morbidity and mortality. Recognizing major contributors of neonatal hypothermia is very important in designing preventing methods which was the objective of our study. This was an institution-based cross-sectional study conducted on 339 neonates admitted to Neonatal Intensive Care Unit of University of Gondar Comprehensive Specialized Hospital over 6months. Study participants were selected using systematic random sampling techniques and both bivariate and multivariate logistic regression analyses were used to identify contributors and p-value of < 0.05 was considered statistically significant. In our study, the prevalence of neonatal hypothermia was 70.05%. Low birth weight (AOR = 8.35, 95%CI: 2.34, 29.80), bathing within 24 h (AOR = 3.96, 95%CI: 1.06, 14.78), absence of head cover (AOR = 3.11, 95%CI: 1.16, 8.38), C/S delivery ( AOR = 8.54, 95%CI: 2.01, 36.39), night time delivery (AOR = 2.92, 95%CI: 1.29, 6.61) and being out born (AOR = 6.84, 95%CI: 2.12, 22.13) were having significant association with neonatal hypothermia. In this study, the prevalence of neonatal hypothermia was significantly high. Factors having significant association with neonatal hypothermia were low birth weight, bathing within 24 h, absence of head cover, C/S delivery, delivery at night and being out born were having.