Hospital Factors Associated with the Survival of Infants Born at Periviable Gestation: The USA National Database

Abstract

Background: Reports on the survival of infants born at periviable gestation (GA of ≤24 weeks and birth weight of Methods: We utilized the de-identified National Inpatient Sample (NIS) dataset of the Healthcare Cost and Utilization Project (HCUP) from the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ). National data were analyzed for the years 2010–2018. Hospitals were categorized according to delivery volume, USA regions, and teaching status. Results: We identified 33,998,014 infants born during the study period; 76,231 infants were ≤24 weeks. Survival at birth and first 2 days of life was greatest in urban teaching hospitals in infants Conclusions: Hospital factors are associated with increased survival rates. Improved survival in large teaching hospitals supports the need for the regionalization of care in infants born at the limits of viability. There was a significant delay in the postnatal mortality day.

Keywords

• NICU
• preterm
• survival
• periviable gestation
• perinatal epidemiology