MATERNAL- AND FETAL-RISK FACTORS ASSOCIATED WITH LATEPRETERM AND EARLY TERM NEONATECOMPARED TO FULL TERM NEONATE BIRTH IN GARISSA COUNTY

Despite late preterm neonates (LPN) and early term neonates (ETN) constitutingmajority of preterm births globally, the risk factors associated with these preterm births, in Garissa County are largely unexplored. This study aimed to identify maternal and fetal risk factors associated with LPN and ETN births relative to their full-term counterpartsin Garissa County. The study was conducted at Garissa County Referral Hospital. A prospective cohort studythat employed convenience sampling to enroll mother-neonate pairs. Data were collected using pretested and validated questionnaires and analyzed using STATA version 17. Multinomial logistic regression analysis was performed to determine Relative Risk Ratio. The P-value was generated at α=0.05 and P<0.05 was considered statistically significant. related risk factors associated with birth of LPN, ETN and FTN were maternal age (P=0.042), occupation (P=0.024), ethnicity (P=0.021), religion (P=0.016) and absence of previous abortion/still birth/premature deliveries (P=0.015). Birth weight was associated with LPN (P<0.001), while FTN had higher likelihood of delayed initiation of breastfeeding (P=0.038) but were less likely to have feeding difficulties compared to LPN and ETN (P=0.012). A comparison of fit model with the complete set of predictors with an intercept-only, or null modelrevealed that P-values for maternal (P=0.0175) and fetal (P<0.001) related risk factors were less than Fisher’s value of 0.05, hence the null hypothesis was rejected. - and fetal-related risk factors associated with LPNs and ETNsare distinct from those of FTNs.