Proportion of Births Protected Against Neonatal Tetanus and Its Associated Factors Among Mothers Who Gave Birth Within the Past 6 Months in Gozamn District, Northwest Ethiopia, 2022

Abstract Introduction: An estimated 3.3 million newborn deaths occur each year around the world, with 9,000 babies dying every day in their first 28 days. Neonatal tetanus is tetanus that occurs within the first 28 days of life, and maternal immunization can reduce neonatal tetanus by 94%. However, not enough mothers were vaccinated to protect against neonatal tetanus globally, and only 49% of mothers in Ethiopia were protected. The proportion of mothers who were protected from neonatal tetanus was not determined yet in the study area. Because neonatal tetanus is such a serious disorder with such a high fatality rate and there is a need for more recent evidence on it, more research on birth protection against neonatal tetanus is needed. Objective To assess the proportion of births protected against neonatal tetanus and its associated factors among mothers who gave birth within the past 6 months in Gozamn district, Northwest Ethiopia, 2022. Method A community-based cross-sectional study was conducted in the Gozamn district, Northwest Ethiopia from April 1–30, 2022. A total sample size of 831 was used, and a two-stage stratified sampling technique was used. A structured and pre-tested questionnaire was used to collect the data, and the data was analysed by using StataV14. A logistic regression analysis was conducted, and the level of statistical significance was determined by a p-value of less than 0.05. Result The proportions of birth protected against neonatal tetanus were 58.57% in the study. Mother who had radio (AOR = 3.09,95%CI: 2.09, 4.56), mother who travel less than one hour to reach nearest health facility (AOR = 1.96,95%CI: 1.23,3.10), mother who gave birth of their last child in the health institution (AOR = 4.17,95%CI:2.39,7.28), mothers who had information from health professional (AOR = 2.56,95%CI:1.56,4.19) and > 4 ANC visit (AOR = 2.57,95%CI:1.55,4.26) were positive predictors of birth protected against neonatal tetanus. Conclusion In this study area, the proportion of mothers protected against neonatal tetanus was low. Professional based counselling related to TT vaccine, as well as interlinks and strength of different health care services such as ANC and delivery services are vital to increase proportion of birth protected against neonatal tetanus.