Extremely preterm infant admissions within the SafeBoosC-III consortium during the COVID-19 lockdown

  1. Marie Isabel Rasmussen
  2. Mathias Lühr Hansen
  3. Gerhard Pichler
  4. Eugene Dempsey
  5. Adelina Pellicer
  6. Afif EL-Khuffash
  7. A Shashidhar
  8. Salvador Piris-Borregas
  9. Miguel Alsina
  10. Merih Cetinkaya
  11. Lina Chalak
  12. Hilal Ozkan
  13. Mariana Baserga
  14. Jan Sirc
  15. Hans Fuchs
  16. Ebru Ergenekon
  17. Luis Arruza
  18. Amit Mathur
  19. Martin Stocker
  20. Olalla Otero Vaccarello
  21. Tomasz Szczapa
  22. Kosmas Sarafidis
  23. Barbara Krolak-Olejnik
  24. Asli Memisoglu
  25. Hallvard Reigstad
  26. Elżbieta Rafińska-Ważny
  27. Eleftheria Hatzidaki
  28. Zhang Peng
  29. Despoina Gkentzi
  30. Renaud Viellevoye
  31. Julie De Buyst
  32. Emmanuele Mastretta
  33. Ping Wang
  34. Gitte Holst Hahn
  35. Lars Bender
  36. Luc Cornette
  37. Jakub Tkaczyk
  38. Ruth del Rio
  39. Monica Fumagalli
  40. Evangelina Papathoma
  41. Maria Wilinska
  42. Gunnar Naulers
  43. Iwona Sadowska-Krawczenko
  44. Chantal Lecart
  45. María Luz Couce
  46. Siv Fredly
  47. Anne Marie Heuchan
  48. Tanja Karen
  49. Gorm Greisen
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Abstract

Objective

To evaluate if the number of admitted extremely preterm (EP) infants (born before 28 weeks of gestational age) has changed in the neonatal intensive care units (NICUs) of the SafeBoosC-III consortium during the global lockdown when compared to the corresponding time period in 2019.

Design

This is a retrospective, observational study. Forty-six out of 79 NICUs (58%) from 17 countries participated. Principal investigators were asked to report the following information: 1) Total number of EP infant admissions to their NICU in the three months where the lockdown restrictions were most rigorous during the first phase of the COVID-19 pandemic, 2) Similar EP infant admissions in the corresponding three months of 2019, 3) the level of local restrictions during the lockdown period and 4) the local impact of the COVID-19 lockdown on the everyday life of a pregnant woman.

Results

There was no significant difference between the number of EP infant admissions during the three most rigorous lockdown months of the COVID-19 pandemic compared to the corresponding three months in 2019 (n=428 versus n=457 respectively, p=0.33). There were no significant changes within individual geographic regions and no significant association between the level of lockdown restrictions and change in the number of EP infant admissions (p=0.334).

Conclusion

This largerad hocstudy did not confirm previous studies’ report of a major reduction in the number of extremely preterm births during the first phase of the COVID-19 pandemic.

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