Center for Maternal-Fetal, Neonatal and Reproductive Medicine, National Center for Child Health and Development, Setagaya-ku, Tokyo, Japan.
Medical Data Vision Co, Ltd, Chiyoda-ku, Tokyo, Japan.
Arch Dis Child Fetal Neonatal Ed. 2021 May;106(3):327-329. doi: 10.1136/archdischild-2020-320521. Epub 2020 Nov 23.
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.
在 COVID-19 爆发期间，新生儿重症监护病房（NICU）的使用有所减少，但这种现象在各国是否普遍存在尚不清楚。本研究利用日本大规模住院患者数据库，针对 2020 年第 10-17 周（爆发期间和之前）与 2019 年同期趋势相比较，分析了重症新生儿护理量和早产分娩数量。结果发现，NICU 入院人数（调整后的发病率比（aIRR），0.76；95%置信区间，0.65 至 0.89）和新生儿复苏（aIRR，0.37；95%置信区间，0.25 至 0.55）均显著减少。随着重症新生儿护理量的减少，34 孕周前（aIRR，0.71）和 34 0/7 至 36 6/7 孕周（aIRR，0.85）的早产分娩数量也显著减少。需要进一步研究这一现象的发生机制。
