Assessment of the Recorded Causes of Neonatal Hospitalization and the Related Factors in Neonatal Wards and NICUs in Bojnord

Introduction: according to millennium development goal (mdg) number 4, child mortality should be reduced by two thirds by 2015.  the focus has been on decreasing neonatal deaths in high-mortality countries. in this study, we assessed the recorded causes of neonatal hospitalization in the neonatal intensive care unit (nicu) and infant care wards. methods: the present cross-sectional study was carried out in two hospitals (bentolhoda hospital and emam reza hospital) of north khorasan university of medical sciences, bojnord in 2011-2012. we assessed different variables such as maternal age at infant’s birth, gestational age, first and fifth minute apgar scores, and hospitalization etiology. chi-square and kruskal-wallis tests were used for the statistical analysis. results: in this study, the most common cause of neonatal admission was icterus. most of the infants' birth weight was higher than 2,500 gr.there was a relationship between apgar score in the first and fifth minutes and causes of hospitalization (p<0.001). infants' gender and maternal mode of delivery had no significant relationship with the cause hospitalization (p<0.06). however, birth weight and gestational age were significantly related to the causes of admission in hospitals (p<0.0001). conclusion: identifying the factors which influence the hospitalization of infants can help control these risk factors.it can also lead to the decrease of neonatal mortality, which is a reflection of nations’ socio-economic status.