Table 2

Key characteristics of study units

	France % (CI)	Germany (ex-BRD) % (CI)	Germany (ex-DDR) % (CI)	Great Britain % (CI)	Italy % (CI)	Luxembourg % (CI)	Netherlands % (CI)	Spain % (CI)	Sweden % (CI)
Attached to maternity ward		76	32	40	100	75	0	70	78	11
Attached to maternity ward		(56–89)	(14–57)	(15–73)	/	(58–87)		(70–70)	(59–89)	(11–11)
No of births in unit catchment area (^*)		8000	4000	4000	8100	7000	5500	30000	4860	3000
No of births in unit catchment area (^*)		(7000–17000)	(3500–5500)	(2200–8000)	(4350–9861)	(3000–8000)		(16000–30000)	(3450–9800)	(2800–3300)
No of VLBW admissions (^*)		60	34	41	85	40	33	118	36	21
No of VLBW admissions (^*)		(44–79)	(29–50)	(20–50)	(73–126)	(27–55)		(108–149)	(30–52)	(18–47)
No of intensive care cots (^*)		9	9	8	8	6	6	13	6	5
No of intensive care cots (^*)		(8–13)	(7–10)	(5–10)	(6–10)	(3–8)		(10–15)	(5–8)	(3–8)
Equipment complexity score (^*)		1.97	2.19	1.96	1.47	1.60	3	2.44	2.23	1.35
Equipment complexity score (^*)		(1.31–2.24)	(1.63–2.39)	(1.08–2.02)	(1.40–1.96)	(1.30–1.96)		(1.79–2.86)	(1.57–2.58)	(0.83–1.61)
Nurse:patient ratio in intensive care (average over 24 hours) (^*)		0.33	0.44	0.36	0.50	0.33	0.67	0.39	0.39	0.75
		(0.33–0.33)	(0.32–0.50)	(0.31–0.44)	(0.50–0.50)	(0.25–0.50)		(0.39–0.50)	(0.33–0.40)	(0.50–1.00)
Intensive care for over 2 years children		59	86	40	0	8	100	0	6	17
Intensive care for over 2 years children		(39–76)	(65–95)	(15–73)		(3–23)			(1–23)	(17–17)
Teaching “a lot”		71	18	40	56	36	100	90	83	48
Teaching “a lot”		(50–85)	(8–37)	(15–73)	(27–81)	(20–56)		(90–90)	(65–93)	(40–57)
Research “a lot”		18	9	11	22	17	0	70	33	29
Research “a lot”		(7–38)	(5–15)	(3–30)	(6–56)	(7–35)		(70–70)	(19–52)	(24–35)

(^*) Median (25°–75° centile)