Original Research Article
Year: 2017 | Month: May | Volume: 7 | Issue: 5 | Pages: 302-313
The Incidence of Congenital Anomalies among Newborns at Pumwani Hospital, Nairobi, Kenya
Grace Munyatta Nabea1, Thomas Matenjwa Kamau2, Emily Wanja Kaburu3
1BSC. PGD
2Ph.D., MBA, MPA; Associate Professor of Health Sciences, Ohio University, Zanesville, OH 43701
3BSC, MSC; International Development Institute-Africa
Corresponding Author: Thomas Matenjwa Kamau
ABSTRACT
Congenital anomalies are an under recognized cause of mortality and disability in children under five years of age in the developing countries. Among Low and Middle Income Countries (LMICs), overwhelming majority of children die of congenital anomalies. The extent of congenital problems in Kenya is not clearly understood and documented. The objective of this study was to examine incidences of neonatal congenital anomalies among newborns at Pumwani Maternity Hospital (PMH) in May 2014 through April 2015. A descriptive cross sectional study was utilized to review and to extract pertinent data. The data was abstracted from Research Electronic data Capture (RED Cap) and analyzed on R for statistical computing.Out of 6633 new-borns at PMH 129 new-borns had congenital anomalies giving an overall incidence rate of 1.94% of the total admissions (95% confidence interval 1.64, 2.31). Musculoskeletal system was the most common, accounting for 0.95% of total births. The central nervous system and the genital organs were equally affected with 0.12% of total admissions each. Congenital talipes equinovarus was the leading congenital anomaly of the musculoskeletal system (53.97%) followed by polydactyl with 17.46%. More males 79 (61.24%) had congenital anomalies than their female counterparts 48 (37.20%). The findings highlight the need to step up efforts to fight congenital anomalies in Kenya. Primarily public health needs to focus on preventive interventions for congenital anomalies. Further research is needed to comprehensively document all risk factors in the Kenyan setting to help in make informed health care decisions.
Key words: Congenital anomalies, neonatal anomalies, Kenya