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. 2021 Dec 10;11(1):23795.
doi: 10.1038/s41598-021-03183-1.

Trends in neonatal intensive care unit admissions by race/ethnicity in the United States, 2008-2018

Youngran Kim  1 , Cecilia Ganduglia-Cazaban  2 , Wenyaw Chan  3 , MinJae Lee  4 , David C Goodman  5   6
Affiliations

Trends in neonatal intensive care unit admissions by race/ethnicity in the United States, 2008-2018

Youngran Kim et al. Sci Rep. .

Abstract

To examine temporal trends of NICU admissions in the U.S. by race/ethnicity, we conducted a retrospective cohort analysis using natality files provided by the National Center for Health Statistics at the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. A total of 38,011,843 births in 2008-2018 were included. Crude and risk-adjusted NICU admission rates, overall and stratified by birth weight group, were compared between white, black, and Hispanic infants. Crude NICU admission rates increased from 6.62% (95% CI 6.59-6.65) to 9.07% (95% CI 9.04-9.10) between 2008 and 2018. The largest percentage increase was observed among Hispanic infants (51.4%) compared to white (29.1%) and black (32.4%) infants. Overall risk-adjusted rates differed little by race/ethnicity, but birth weight-stratified analysis revealed that racial/ethnic differences diminished in the very low birth weight (< 1500 g) and moderately low birth weight (1500-2499 g) groups. Overall NICU admission rates increased by 37% from 2008 to 2018, and the increasing trends were observed among all racial and ethnic groups. Diminished racial/ethnic differences in NICU admission rates in very low birth weight infants may reflect improved access to timely appropriate NICU care among high-risk infants through increasing health care coverage coupled with growing NICU supply.

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Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare no competing interests.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Cohort derivation.
Figure 2
Figure 2
Temporal trends for crude NICU admission rates by race/ethnicity for 2008–2018 all births and subgroups.
Figure 3
Figure 3
NICU admission across birth weight by race/ethnicity, 2008 vs 2018.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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