Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
. 2015 Oct 7:3:225.
doi: 10.3389/fpubh.2015.00225. eCollection 2015.

A Selected Review of the Mortality Rates of Neonatal Intensive Care Units

Selina Chow  1 , Ronald Chow  1 , Mila Popovic  1 , Michael Lam  2 , Marko Popovic  1 , Joav Merrick  3 , Ruth Naomi Stashefsky Margalit  4 , Henry Lam  2 , Milica Milakovic  1 , Edward Chow  2 , Jelena Popovic  1
Affiliations

A Selected Review of the Mortality Rates of Neonatal Intensive Care Units

Selina Chow et al. Front Public Health. .

Abstract

Introduction: Newborn babies in need of critical medical attention are normally admitted to the neonatal intensive care unit (NICU). These infants tend to be preterm, have low birth weight, and/or have serious medical conditions. Neonatal survival varies, but progress in perinatal and neonatal care has notably diminished mortality rates. In this selected review, we examine and compare the NICU mortality rates and etiologies of death in different countries.

Methods: A literature search was conducted in Ovid MEDLINE, OLDMEDLINE, EMBASE Classic, and EMBASE. The primary endpoint was the mortality rates in NICUs. Secondary endpoints included the reasons for death and the correlation between infant age and mortality outcome. For the main analysis, we examined all infants admitted to NICUs. Subgroup analyses included extremely low birth weight infants (based on the authors' own definition), very low birth weight infants, very preterm infants, preterm infants, preterm infants with a birth weight of ≤1,500 g, and by developed and developing countries.

Results: The literature search yielded 1,865 articles, of which 20 were included. The total mortality rates greatly varied among countries. Infants in developed and developing countries had similar ages at death, ranging from 4 to 20 days and 1 to 28.9 days, respectively. The mortality rates ranged from 4 to 46% in developed countries and 0.2 to 64.4% in developing countries.

Conclusion: The mortality rates of NICUs vary between nations but remain high in both developing and developed countries.

Keywords: mortality rate; neonatal intensive care unit; prematurity.

PubMed Disclaimer

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Search strategy for Ovid MEDLINE and OLDMEDLINE.
Figure 2
Figure 2
Search strategy for Embase Classic and Embase.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

References

    1. Stanford Children’s Health. California: Stanford Medicine 2015 (2015). Available from: http://www.stanfordchildrens.org/en/topic/default?id=the-neonatal-intens...
    1. Stanford Children’s Health. California: Stanford Medicine 2015 (2015). Available from: http://www.stanfordchildrens.org/en/topic/default?id=procedures-and-equi...
    1. Boxwell G. Neonatal Intensive Care Nursing. New York, NY: Routledge; (2010). Available from: http://samples.sainsburysebooks.co.uk/9781135154615_sample_843707.pdf
    1. Yinger NV, Ransom EL. Why Invest in Newborn Health?. Washington, DC: Population Reference Bureau; (2003). p. 1–5.
    1. Mathews TJ, Miniño AM, Osterman MJ, Strobino DM, Guyer B. Annual summary of vital statistics: 2008. Pediatrics (2011) 127(1):146–57.10.1542/peds.2010-3175 - DOI - PubMed

LinkOut - more resources