Incidence and risk factors of neonatal hypothermia: A systematic review and meta-analysis

Hypothermia poses a threat to the health and lives of newborns. Therefore, it is essential to identify the factors that influence neonatal hypothermia and provide targeted intervention suggestions for clinical practice to reduce its occurrence.

We conducted a literature search to identify factors influencing neonatal hypothermia and performed a meta-analysis to determine the prevalence of neonatal hypothermia and its associated factors. The Newcastle-Ottawa Scale (NOS) was used to assess the quality of cohort and case-control studies, while the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ) was used to evaluate the quality of cross-sectional studies.

Eighteen studies involving 44 532 newborns from 13 countries were included. The incidence of neonatal hypothermia was 52.5% (95% CI: 0.37, 0.68). Factors such as no skin-to-skin contact, prematurity, low birth weight, delayed breastfeeding, asphyxiation and resuscitation after birth, low APGAR score, not wearing a cap, and caesarean section were found to affect neonatal hypothermia.

Multiple factors influence neonatal hypothermia, and clinicians can utilise these factors to develop targeted intervention measures to prevent and reduce the incidence of neonatal hypothermia.