Objective: To quantify the characteristics of children admitted to neonatal units (NNUs) and paediatric intensive care units (PICUs) before the age of 2 years.
Design: A data linkage study of routinely collected data.
Setting: National Health Service NNUs and PICUs in England and Wales PATIENTS: Children born from 2013 to 2018.
Interventions: None.
Main outcome measure: Admission to PICU before the age of 2 years.
Results: A total of 384 747 babies were admitted to an NNU and 4.8% (n=18 343) were also admitted to PICU before the age of 2 years. Approximately half of all children admitted to PICU under the age of 2 years born in the same time window (n=18 343/37 549) had previously been cared for in an NNU.The main reasons for first admission to PICU were cardiac (n=7138) and respiratory conditions (n=5386). Cardiac admissions were primarily from children born at term (n=5146), while respiratory admissions were primarily from children born preterm (<37 weeks' gestational age, n=3550). A third of children admitted to PICU had more than one admission.
Conclusions: Healthcare professionals caring for babies and children in NNU and PICU see some of the same children in the first 2 years of life. While some children are following established care pathways (eg, staged cardiac surgery), the small proportion of children needing NNU care subsequently requiring PICU care account for a large proportion of the total PICU population. These differences may affect perceptions of risk for this group of children between NNU and PICU teams.
Keywords: Epidemiology; Intensive Care Units, Neonatal; Intensive Care Units, Paediatric.
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