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Despite advances in neonatal intensive care, respiratory morbidities for very low birth weight babies have remained the same.1,2 This is associated with high costs, both to infants and families and in financial terms to the NHS.(Phibbs 2006) There is considerable variation in respiratory management of this vulnerable population across neonatal units. The majority of neonatal units in the United Kingdom contribute neonatal data to a common platform ‘Badger.net’. In this study we aim to pilot extraction of respiratory data from Badger.net from three tertiary units in London to examine the applicability and feasibility of auditing and bench marking routinely collected data.MethodsData were collected for all babies <27 weeks gestational age (GA) for 2013 (January-December). The information was collected from Badger.net, the medical notes were checked for missing data. Data were compared using the Mann Whitney U test.ResultsThe median GA and birth weight (BW) were similar in all units. Only inborn babies from Unit A (a surgical centre) were considered (Table 1). There was a significant difference in the invasive ventilation days in units A and B compared to unit C (p = 0.006 and 0.009 respectively) (Fig 1). The percentage of babies with chronic lung disease at 36 weeks GA did not differ (84%, 88% and 82%, units A, B and C respectively). Babies in unit C were discharged home approximately a week earlier compared to babies in units A and B. The number of babies discharged with home oxygen also varied between units (Table 2). This may reflect the scope and adequacy of locally available community services.Abstract G406(P) Table 1Demographics, ns = non-significantAbstract G406(P) Figure 1Comparison of invasive and non-invasive ventilation days from day 1-28 in all three neonatal unitsAbstract G406(P) Table 2Respiratory outcome, ns = non-significantConclusionBy publishing the respiratory data from three tertiary units in London, we show that these outcomes can be continuously audited by examining routinely collected and readily available data. This methodology will allow other units to audit their own service, benchmark their outcomes and improve standards within their units and across neonatal networks by identifying and sharing good practice. This work is an important ‘proof of concept’, moreover it may be possible to draw further conclusions regarding respiratory management if data are analysed over a longer period.

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Background: Low birth weight (LBW) is still a significant public health problem globally and is associated with a range of both short- and long-term consequences. Overall, it is estimated that 15% to 20% of all births worldwide are low birth weight, representing more than 20 million births a year. Objective: We aimed the study to assess the risk factors associated with low-birth-weight neonates in a rural tertiary care hospital. Methodology: A prospective observational Case-Control Study was conducted in the Department of Pediatrics (Neonatal Intensive Care Unit) and Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology, Dhiraj Hospital, Vadodara with the sample of 240 women who were admitted for the delivery. The patient interview was done based on the questionnaires (Proforma). Results: Area of residence, Parent's education, Anaemia among pregnant women, Mid upper arm circumference (MUAC) less than 23 cm, Maternal age, and antenatal visits <4 were found as significant risk factors associated with low birth weight in the study. Study findings suggest that 91.3% of cases were from rural areas compared to 71% of controls from the same area. Similarly, Anaemia though prevalent in both case and control groups was seen as a significant predictor more in the case group. Other factors such as parity, spacing between babies, and consumption of drugs and alcohol by pregnant others were also recorded but were protective of LBW. Conclusions: The study concluded that delay age of first pregnancy, lacking iron/folic acid supplementation, not taking nutritional food during pregnancy, anemia and other factors were independently associated with LBW.