Objective
To analyse survival trends and regional variation for very preterm infants admitted to neonatal care.
Setting
All neonatal units in England
Patients
Infants born at 22+0-31+6 weeks+days gestational age (GA) over 2008-2014 and admitted to neonatal care; published data for admitted infants 22+0-25+6 weeks+days GA in 1995 and 2006, and for live births at 22+0-31+6 weeks+days GA in 2013.
Methods
We obtained data from the National Neonatal Research Database (NNRD). We used logistic regression to model survival probability with birth-weight, GA, sex, antenatal steroid exposure, and multiple birth included in the risk-adjustment model, and calculated Average Percentage Change (APC) for trends using joinpoint regression. We evaluated survival over a 20-year period for infants <26 weeks GA using additional published data from the EPICure studies.
Results
We identified 50,112 eligible infants. There was an increase in survival over 2008-2014 (2008 88.0%, 2014 91.3%; adjusted APC 0.46% (95% Confidence Interval 0.30 to 0.62) p<0.001). The greatest improvement was at 22+0-23+6 weeks (APC 6.03% (2.47 to 3.53) p=0.002). Improvement largely occurred in London and South of England (APC: London 1.26% (0.60 to 1.96); South of England 1.09% (0.36 to 1.82); Midlands and East of England 0.15%(-0.56 to 0.86); North of England 0.26% (-0.54 to 1.07)). Survival at the earliest gestations improved at a similar rate over 1995-2014 (22+0-25+6 weeks, APC 2.73% (2.35 to 3.12) p-value for change=0.25).
Conclusions
Continued national improvement in the survival of very preterm admissions masks important regional variation. Timely assessment of preterm survival is feasible using electronic records.