Association of Neonatal Hypothermia with Morbidity and Mortality in a Tertiary Hospital in Malawi.

Phoya, Frank, Langton, Josephine, Dube, Queen and Iroh Tam, Pui-Ying ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-3682-8892 (2020) 'Association of Neonatal Hypothermia with Morbidity and Mortality in a Tertiary Hospital in Malawi.'. Journal of Tropical Pediatrics, Vol 66, Issue 5, pp. 470-478.

Text Phoya_hypothermia - Pui-Ying Iroh Tam.doc - Accepted Version Available under License Creative Commons Attribution. Download (73kB)

Abstract

OBJECTIVES
To evaluate associations with neonatal hypothermia in a tertiary-level neonatal unit (NU) in Malawi.
METHODS
Neonates with a birth weight >1000 g were recruited and temperatures were recorded 5 min after birth, on admission and 4 h thereafter. Clinical course and outcome were reviewed. Data were analysed using Stata v.15 and p < 0.05 was considered statistically significant.
RESULTS
Between August 2018 to March 2019, 120 neonates were enrolled, and 112 were included in the data analysis. Hypothermia at 5 min after birth was noted in 74%, 77% on admission to the NU and 38% at 24 h. Neonates who had hypothermia 5 min after birth were more likely to have hypothermia on admission to the NU compared with normothermic subjects (p < 0.01). All neonates with hypothermia on admission to the NU died (100 vs.72%, p = 0.02), but hypothermia at 5 min nor at 24 h were not associated with mortality. After adjusting for potential confounders, the odds ratio of hypothermia at 5 min for hypothermia on admission to NU was 13.31 (95% CI 4.17-42.54).
DISCUSSION
A large proportion of hospitalized neonates is hypothermic on admission and has associated morbidity and mortality. Our findings suggest that a strong predictor of mortality is neonatal hypothermia on admission to the NU, and that early intervention in the immediate period after delivery could decrease the incidence of hypothermia and reduce associated morbidity and mortality.

Item Type:	Article
Subjects:	WA Public Health > Health Problems of Special Population Groups > WA 395 Health in developing countries WD Disorders of Systemic, Metabolic or Environmental Origin, etc > Disorders and Injuries of Environmental Origin > WD 600 General works WY Nursing > WY 157.3 Maternal-child nursing. Neonatal nursing. Perinatal nursing
Faculty: Department:	Clinical Sciences & International Health > Malawi-Liverpool-Wellcome Programme (MLW)
Digital Object Identifer (DOI):	https://doi.org/10.1093/tropej/fmz086
Depositing User:	Julie Franco
Date Deposited:	25 Mar 2020 10:26
Last Modified:	14 Oct 2020 11:24
URI:	https://archive.lstmed.ac.uk/id/eprint/14061

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