Mortality and morbidity to discharge for neonatal unit admissions for babies who were transferred to a level 3 service after admission (NNT) compared with babies who remained in their hospital of birth, for births in England in 2006 between 22 and 26 weeks of gestation
| Outcome | Level 2 (n=348) (%) | Neonatal transfer (n=261) | Level 3 (n=1028) | p Value* | aOR L3 vs L2 | aOR L2 vs NNT | aOR L3 vs NNT | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Neonatal unit deaths <7 days | 80 | 23% | 35 | 21% | 166 | 16% | 0.002 | 0.56 (0.41 to 0.78) | 1.50 (0.93 to 2.42) | 0.85 (0.55 to 1.30) |
| Late neonatal death (7–28 days) | 34 | 10 | 22 | 14% | 122 | 12% | 0.935 | 0.93 (0.61 to 1.43) | 1.01 (0.55 to 1.86) | 0.94 (0.56 to 1.58) |
| Death 29 days to discharge | 22 | 6 | 13 | 8% | 86 | 8% | 0.831 | 1.05 (0.63 to 1.76) | 1.16 (0.54 to 2.49) | 1.22 (0.64 to 2.34) |
| All deaths | 136 | 39% | 70 | 43% | 374 | 36% | 0.156 | 0.76 (0.58 to 1.00) | 1.25 (0.82 to 1.89) | 0.95 (0.66 to 1.37) |
| Survival without morbidity | 58 | 17% | 12 | 7% | 157 | 15% | 0.124 | 1.09 (0.77 to 1.54) | 1.76 (0.90 to 3.46) | 1.92 (1.02 to 3.60) |
| Survivors only | ||||||||||
| No morbidity | 58 | 27% | 12 | 13% | 157 | 24% | 0.172 | 0.97 (0.67 to 1.40) | 1.88 (0.94 to 3.78) | 1.83 (0.96 to 3.50) |
No heterogeneity was detected for any outcome in the effect of neonatal transfer at different gestational ages.
*p Value for overall significance of transfer adjusted for gestational age and birthweight for gestation.
aOR, OR adjusted for gestational age and birthweight for gestation based on population alive at start of time period; NNT, neonatal transfer.