neoOUTCOMES

Each year 90,000 babies born after 32 weeks are admitted to NHS neonatal units, with an annual cost in excess of £450 million.  Many of these admissions are avoidable, while a paucity of evidence means that many admitted babies will receive suboptimal care.  The impact of neonatal conditions and treatments extends throughout the life-course for affected individuals with impacts on important outcomes, including increased risk of cardiovascular disease and impaired cognitive ability.  While the public health burden of moderate-, late-preterm and term admission is known to be considerable, this group is underrepresented in neonatal research and quality improvement initiatives.  Furthermore, because neonatal illness is more common in ethnic minority and deprived populations this burden disproportionately affects the most vulnerable and may perpetuate the inequalities these groups face. 

To reduce the unequal disease burden experienced by this population we plan to retrospectively link existing population-level health and education data.  This will be used to understand the conditions causing moderate-preterm, late-preterm and term neonatal admission, the effects these conditions have on important long-term outcomes, and to identify modifiable factors to optimise the care these vulnerable babies receive.

AIM

Create a data resource that can be used to assess the population healthcare burden of neonatal conditions affecting moderate-preterm, late-preterm and term neonates.  This can be used to quantify the impact of neonatal admission on important outcomes (such as general cognitive ability) and allow identification of modifiable factors to reduce the healthcare burden experienced by this disadvantaged population.

RESEARCH OVERVIEW

This project is principally a data linkage project to create a national data resource that will improve care for neonates born moderate-preterm, late-preterm and term.  It will comprise seven workstreams which will include PPI engagement work to understand family perspectives on data linkage in this group, the creation of the new data resource using retrospective data linkage, epidemiological studies to understand the causes and patterns of both neonatal admissions and eventual patient outcomes, and finally cohort studies to identify unmodifiable and modifiable factors predisposing to high-risk of poor general cognitive ability. 

RESEARCH IMPORTANCE

This work iwill identify the best way to manage the large group of babies born after 32 weeks of pregnancy.