title: Risk Factors for Maternal Mortality in Rural Tigray, Northern Ethiopia: A Case-Control Study.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Maternal mortality continues to have devastating impacts in many societies, where it constitutes a leading cause of death, and thus remains a core issue in international development. Nevertheless, individual determinants of maternal mortality are often unclear and subject to local variation. This study aims to characterise individual risk factors for maternal mortality in Tigray, Ethiopia.
  
  
  METHODS
  A community-based case-control study was conducted, with 62 cases and 248 controls from six randomly-selected rural districts. All maternal deaths between May 2012 and September 2013 were recruited as cases and a random sample of mothers who delivered in the same communities within the same time period were taken as controls. Multiple logistic regression was used to identify independent determinants of maternal mortality.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Four independent individual risk factors, significantly associated with maternal death, emerged. Women who were not members of the voluntary Women's Development Army were more likely to experience maternal death (OR 2.07, 95% CI 1.04-4.11), as were women whose husbands or partners had below-median scores for involvement during pregnancy (OR 2.19, 95% CI 1.14-4.18). Women with a pre-existing history of other illness were also at increased risk (OR 5.58, 95% CI 2.17-14.30), as were those who had never used contraceptives (OR 2.58, 95% CI 1.37-4.85). Previous pregnancy complications, a below-median number of antenatal care visits and a woman's lack of involvement in health care decision making were significant bivariable risks that were not significant in the multivariable model.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  The findings suggest that interventions aimed at reducing maternal mortality need to focus on encouraging membership of the Women's Development Army, enhancing husbands' involvement in maternal health services, improving linkages between maternity care and other disease-specific programmes and ensuring that women with previous illnesses or non-users of contraceptive services are identified and followed-up as being at increased risk during pregnancy and childbirth.
authors.affiliation: Tigray Regional Health Bureau, Mekelle, Ethiopia.
authors.forename: Hagos
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Godefay
authors.affiliation: Umeå Centre for Global Health Research, Department of Public Health and Clinical Medicine, Umeå University 90187 Umeå, Sweden.|Institute of Applied Health Sciences, School of Medicine and Dentistry, University of Aberdeen, Aberdeen, United Kingdom.|MRC/Wits Rural Public Health and Health Transitions Research Unit, School of Public Health, Faculty of Health Sciences, University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, South Africa.
authors.forename: Peter
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Byass
authors.affiliation: Institute of Applied Health Sciences, School of Medicine and Dentistry, University of Aberdeen, Aberdeen, United Kingdom.
authors.forename: Wendy J
authors.initials: WJ
authors.lastname: Graham
authors.affiliation: Umeå Centre for Global Health Research, Department of Public Health and Clinical Medicine, Umeå University 90187 Umeå, Sweden.
authors.forename: John
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Kinsman
authors.affiliation: College of Health Sciences, Mekelle University, Mekelle, Ethiopia.
authors.forename: Afework
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Mulugeta
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D016022:Case-Control Studies; D005002:Ethiopia / Q000453:epidemiology; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D016015:Logistic Models; D008427:Maternal Health Services / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D008428:Maternal Mortality; D008875:Middle Aged; D011247:Pregnancy; D011248:Pregnancy Complications / Q000453:epidemiology; D012307:Risk Factors; D055815:Young Adult