Neonatal Health
CLCD’s core mission is to conduct research to prevent unnecessary newborn deaths. We focus on the most impactful interventions that target the most vulnerable population.
Our Work on Neonatal Health
National and Regional Change in Neonatal Mortality in Ghana, from 1993-2014
The death of a child causes significant pain to families, so everything needs to be done to prevent unnecessary child deaths. One way to assess how well a county is doing in relation to children's health is to look at their neonatal mortality rate, a health indicator that measures how many children die in a country before their first month of life for every 1,000 that are born alive.
In Ghana, neonatal mortality accounts for about 40% of child deaths in the first five years of life. Currently, for every 1,000 children that are born, 29 of them will die in the first month - that's about 2,000 preventable deaths per year. Based on data from the Demographic and Health survey from 1993-2014, we tracked the progress of each region in reducing neonatal mortality. We also ranked them based on how change has occurred in each region, by examining the average change per year.
