PT  - JOURNAL ARTICLE
AU  - Maeda, Yuto
AU  - Nakamura, Masaki
AU  - Ninomiya, Hideki
AU  - Ogawa, Kohei
AU  - Sago, Haruhiko
AU  - Miyawaki, Atsushi
TI  - Trends in intensive neonatal care during the COVID-19 outbreak in Japan
AID  - 10.1136/archdischild-2020-320521
DP  - 2021 May 01
TA  - Archives of Disease in Childhood - Fetal and Neonatal Edition
PG  - 327--329
VI  - 106
IP  - 3
4099  - http://fn.bmj.com/content/106/3/327.short
4100  - http://fn.bmj.com/content/106/3/327.full
SO  - Arch Dis Child Fetal Neonatal Ed2021 May 01; 106
AB  - The reduction in the use of neonatal intensive care units (NICUs) during the COVID-19 outbreak has been reported, but whether this phenomenon is widespread across countries is unclear. Using a large-scale inpatient database in Japan, we analysed the intensive neonatal care volume and the number of preterm births for weeks 10–17 vs weeks 2–9 (during and before the outbreak) of 2020 with adjustment for the trends during the same period of 2019. We found statistically significant reductions in the numbers of NICU admissions (adjusted incidence rate ratio (aIRR), 0.76; 95% CI, 0.65 to 0.89) and neonatal resuscitations (aIRR, 0.37; 95% CI, 0.25 to 0.55) during the COVID-19 outbreak. Along with the decrease in the intensive neonatal care volume, preterm births before 34 gestational weeks (aIRR, 0.71) and between 34 0/7 and 36 6/7 gestational weeks (aIRR, 0.85) also showed a significant reduction. Further studies about the mechanism of this phenomenon are warranted.Data are available on reasonable request. Due to the contractual restrictions between the authors and the Medical Data Vision, the data are available on request.