Introduction: Stillbirth remains a public health problem with an estimate
of 2.6 million stillbirths in 2015 of which 98% occurred in low- and
middle-income countries and over three-quarters of these occurring in Sub-Saharan
Africa (SSA) and south Asia. Further, only ten countries carry the burden of
over 65% of total stillbirths in the world including Nigeria in the second
position. The objective of this analysis is to estimate stillbirth rates and
identify the determinants of stillbirth in Nigeria using the 2013 Nigeria DHS
data. Methods: The study utilized the nationally-representative
sample of women of reproductive age interviewed during the 2013 Nigeria DHS.
Analysis was restricted to 31,671 women aged 15-49 years who had a pregnancy
reaching at least seven months of gestation in the five-year period prior to
the survey. Descriptive statistics and regression analysis were performed using
Stata v13 to determine significant factors related to stillbirth. Incidence Risk
Ratio (IRR) was used to assess strength of association between independent and
dependent variables. Results: Overall stillbirth rate is 12.5 per 1000
pregnancies, with rates as high as 22 per 1000 (among women aged 15-19 years)
and as low as 6.4 per 1000 (among women who received skilled ANC). Age,
household wealth, higher birth order, facility delivery, Caesarean delivery,
rural residence and ever use of contraceptive are consistent determinants of
stillbirth in both the bivariate and multivariate models. Women in rich
households have lower IRR of stillbirth (0.60; 95% CI: 0.45-0.59) as well as
women who had ever used modern contraception (IRR = 0.72; 95% CI: 0.63-0.81).
However, health facility deliveries as well as deliveries through a C-section,
rural residence and age older than 20 years all carry increased risk of
stillbirth (IRR = 1.81; 95% CI: 1.05-1.33), (IRR = 2.46; 95% CI: 2.03-2.98),
(IRR = 1.41; 95% CI: 1.24-1.59), and (IRR = 2.23; 95% CI: 1.75-2.59)
respectively. Conclusions: The study revealed that there are several factors
responsible for stillbirth in Nigeria. Age, household wealth, higher birth
order, facility delivery, Caesarean delivery, rural residence and ever use of
contraceptive are consistent determinants of stillbirth in both the bivariate
and multivariate models. There is urgent need by the National government to
improve quality of maternal health care services and interventions to improve
utilization and quality of prenatal care.