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
. 2024 Dec 19;24(1):821.
doi: 10.1186/s12887-024-05318-5.

Length of stay and its associated factors in the neonatal intensive care unit of Gadarif Hospital, Eastern Sudan: a retrospective study

Saeed M Omar  1 , Ahmed A Hassan  2 , Abdullah Al-Nafeesah  3 , Ashwaq AlEed  3 , Jaber Alfaifi  4 , Ishag Adam  5
Affiliations

Length of stay and its associated factors in the neonatal intensive care unit of Gadarif Hospital, Eastern Sudan: a retrospective study

Saeed M Omar et al. BMC Pediatr. .

Abstract

Background: Attention is increasingly paid to length of stay (LOS) in neonatal intensive care units (NICUs) across countries. Few published data on neonatal LOS exist in Africa, where there is a high burden of neonatal morbidity and mortality. Thus, this study investigated the factors associated with neonatal LOS in the NICU of Gadarif Hospital, Eastern Sudan.

Methods: A hospital-based retrospective study was conducted at Gadarif Hospital in Eastern Sudan from May to December 2020. Sociodemographic, maternal, and neonatal data were obtained from the hospital records. Poisson regressions were used to determine the adjusted relative risk (aRR) values and 95.0% confidence intervals (CIs).

Results: This study enrolled 333 neonates admitted to the NICU and discharged alive. The median (interquartile range [IQR]) of maternal age and parity was 27.0 (23.0‒30.0) years and 3 (2‒5), respectively. Of the 333 neonates, 160 (48.0%) were males; 136 (40.8%) were delivered via cesarean section; 258 (77.5%) had low Apgar scores, and 74 (22.2%) had birth asphyxia. There were 140 (42.0%) low birth weight (LBW) neonates and 133 (39.9%) preterm neonates. The LOS range was 1-29 days (mean = 5.1 days), and its median (IQR) was 4 (2‒7) days. The multivariate Poisson analysis showed that increasing maternal age (aRR = 1.02, 95% CI = 1.01‒1.05), LBW (aRR = 1.48, 95% CI = 1.16‒1.90), preterm delivery (aRR = 1.27, 95% CI = 1.01‒1.61), a low Apgar score (aRR = 1.32, 95% CI = 1.06‒1.42), and an increasing white blood cell (WBC) count (aRR = 1.001, 95% CI = 1.001‒1.002) were associated with LOS. Parity (aRR = 0.85, 95% CI = 0.80‒0.91) was inversely associated with LOS. However, neonatal jaundice and mode of delivery were associated with LOS only in the univariate analysis.

Conclusion: Increasing maternal age, preterm newborn, LBW, and a low Apgar score prolonged the LOS in this region of Sudan. Healthcare providers could leverage these identified factors to predict extended neonatal LOS in Eastern Sudan, enabling proactive interventions to enhance neonatal outcomes.

Keywords: Age; Length of stay; Low birth weight; Neonatal intensive care unit; Parity; Preterm; Sudan; White blood cell count.

PubMed Disclaimer

Conflict of interest statement

Declarations. Ethical approval and consent to participate: This study was conducted in accordance with the Declaration of Helsinki and approved by the Ethical Review Board of the Faculty of Medicine, University of Gadarif, Eastern Sudan, under reference No. 2020.05. The need for consent to participate was deemed unnecessary according to national regulations because it was a retrospective study, and the data (extracted from the files) were analyzed synonymously. Consent for publication: Not applicable. Competing interests: The authors declare no competing interests.

Similar articles

See all similar articles

References

    1. WHO, Newborn mortality, WHO. 2024. https://www.who.int/news-room/fact-sheets/detail/newborn-mortality. Accessed 25 May 2024.
    1. Nikuee N, Rassouli M, Manuchehri H, Payandeh A, Mojen LK. Correlation between quality of care and length of hospital stay in neonatal intensive care unit. Iran J Neonatol. 2020;11:54–9.
    1. Fu M, Song W, Yu G, Yu Y, Yang Q. Risk factors for length of NICU stay of newborns: a systematic review. Front Pediatr. 2023;11:1121406. - PMC - PubMed
    1. Langley D, Hollis S, Friede T, MacGregor D, Gatrell A. Impact of community neonatal services: a multicentre survey. Arch Dis Child Fetal Neonatal Ed. 2002;87:204–8. - PMC - PubMed
    1. Petteys AR, Adoumie D. Mindfulness-based neurodevelopmental care: impact on NICU parent stress and infant length of stay; a Randomized Controlled Pilot Study. Adv Neonatal Care. 2018;18:E12–22. - PubMed

LinkOut - more resources