Predictors of preterm birth in Jimma town public hospitals, Jimma, Ethiopia

Background: Preterm birth is the most fundamental reason of adverse infant outcomes. Analyzing the preterm birth and its predictor helps health caregivers and policymakers to design better strategies. This study aims to assess predictors of preterm birth in Jimma town public hospitals. Method: Facility-based cross-sectional study was undertaken. Systematic sampling was used to select 319 study participants. Data was entered into EpiData version 3.1 and exported to SPSS (R) version 23 for analysis. Logistic regression was used to analyze the association between dependent and independent variables and variables with p-value < 0.05 at 95% confidence interval (95%CI) in multivariable were considered statistically significant. Result: This study showed that 13.8% from the total 319 mothers gave a preterm birth. Place of residence (p = 0.003, AOR = 0.37, 95%CI [0.11, 0.65]), interpregnancy interval (p = 0.023, AOR = 3.91, 95%CI [1.25, 7.30]), history of preterm births (p = 0.000, AOR = 1.83, 95%CI [0.93, 4.85]), pregnancyinduced hypertension (p = 0.000, AOR = 7.52, 95%CI [3.33,14.23]), chronic disease (p = 0.000, AOR = 5.70, 95%CI [2.81, 8.01]), history of abortion (p = 0.038, AOR = 3.23, 95%CI [1.12, 10.42]) and age 40-44 (p = 0.04, AOR = 1.62, 95%CI [0.21, 14.59]) were found to be significant predictors of preterm birth. Conclusion: Place of residence, short pregnancy interval, pregnancy-induced hypertension, previous history of preterm birth, presence of chronic medical diseases, maternal age between 40 and 44 years, and having abortion history were significant predictors of preterm birth. Therefore, as an important recommendation, health professionals and hospital administrative staff should work with their maximum effort to decrease the magnitude of preterm births and on early identification and management of mothers at risk to have a preterm birth.