Outcome variables

The main outcome variable of this study is time to early neonatal mortality (death occurred between zero to seven days after birth) among reviewed perinatal death. Early neonatal death is the death of neonates between 1 and 7 completed days of birth. Therefore, the dependent variable in this study was defined as “the risk of death occurring between 1 to 7 days period”. The outcome variable was thus survival time in days for the neonates. A neonate who died within seven days of birth was deemed to have had the event and assigned the number ‘1’, while those who did not die within the stated period were assigned the number ‘0’.