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First-year burden of disease for babies admitted to special care nurseries: Systematic review and meta-analysis

Varnika Aggarwal1,2, Hayley T Cron2, Marcus Di Sipio2,3

  • 1Department of Obstetrics, Gynaecology and Newborn Health, The University of Melbourne, Parkville, Victoria, Australia.

Acta Paediatrica (Oslo, Norway : 1992)
|January 11, 2025
PubMed

Insights

Newborns in special care nurseries face increased health risks, including jaundice and respiratory issues, compared to healthy term infants. More research is needed on their long-term outcomes after discharge.

Area of Science:

  • Neonatal Health
  • Pediatric Outcomes
  • Systematic Review

Background:

  • Special care nurseries (SCN) provide care for vulnerable newborns.
  • Understanding health outcomes for SCN graduates is crucial for long-term pediatric health.
  • Limited data exists on post-discharge outcomes for these infants.

Purpose of the Study:

  • To systematically review health outcomes of SCN infants up to one year of age.
  • To compare SCN infant outcomes with those of healthy term babies.
  • To identify prevalent health issues and risks in SCN graduates.

Main Methods:

  • Systematic literature search of Ovid MEDLINE, PubMed, and Embase databases.
  • Inclusion of studies published after 2000, focusing on SCN and moderate-late preterm infants.
  • Meta-analysis to combine prevalence and risk estimates of health outcomes.

Main Results:

  • Twenty-one studies identified from over 22,000 eligible articles.
  • Prevalent conditions in SCN babies include jaundice, hypothermia, hypoglycemia, and respiratory disease (19-32% prevalence).
  • SCN babies exhibited significantly higher risks for all reported outcomes (pooled risk ratios 1.93-14.85) compared to healthy term infants.

Conclusions:

  • Infants admitted to special care nurseries experience a greater disease burden than healthy term infants.
  • There is a notable gap in the literature regarding the post-discharge health outcomes of SCN graduates.
Abstract

Keywords:
burden of diseasemeta‐analysismoderate‐late pretermspecial care nurserysystematic review

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