Sociodemographic determinants and mortality of premature newborns in a medium and low-income population in Colombia, 2017-2019.

Introduction: The birth of premature babies is a public health problem with a high impact on infant morbidity and mortality. About 40% of mortality in children under five years occurs in the first month of life.

Objective: To identify the association between maternal sociodemographic factors, premature birth, and mortality in newborns under 37 weeks in Santiago de Cali, 2017-2019.

Materials and methods: We conducted a descriptive, cross-sectional study. We evaluated the records of Cali's Municipal Public Health Office. We calculated the crude and adjusted odd ratios and confidence intervals (95%) using the logistic regression model, data processing in Stata 16, and georeferencing the cases in the QGIS software.

Results: From 2017 to 2019, premature babies in Cali corresponded to 11% of births. Poor prenatal care increased 3.13 times the risk of being born before 32 weeks (adjusted OR = 3.13; 95% CI = 2.75 - 3.56) and 1.27 times among mothers from outside the city (adjusted OR = 1.27; 95% CI = 1.15-1.41). Mortality was 4.29 per 1,000 live births. The mortality risk in newborns weighing less than 1,000 g increased 3.42 times (OR = 3.42; 95% CI = 2.85-4.12), delivery by cesarean section in 1.46 (OR = 1.46; CI 95% = 1.14-1.87) and an Apgar score - five minutes after birth- lower than seven in 1.55 times (OR = 1.55; CI 95% = 1.23-1.96).

Conclusions: We found that less than three prenatal controls, mothers living outside Cali, afro-ethnicity, and cesarean birth were associated with prematurity of less than 32 weeks. We obtained higher mortality in newborns weighing less than 1,000 g.