Time to regain birth weight and its predictors among preterm neonates admitted at neonatal intensive care unit in Amhara Regional State Comprehensive Specialized Hospitals, Ethiopia: retrospective follow up study

Abstract<br> Background Newborns often lose 7–10% of their birth weight during the first week of life; however, term babies<br> typically regain this weight in 7–10 days, whereas preterm babies typically do so in 10–15 days. Regaining birth<br> weight is an essential developmental milestone and significantly influences their overall health outcomes. Research<br> from the past has concentrated more on the degree of birth weight growth than its causes. Then this study aims to<br> determine the time to regain birth weight and its predictors among preterm neonates admitted at neonatal intensive<br> care unit in Amhara Regional State Specialized Hospitals, Ethiopia.<br> Methods An institution-based retrospective follow-up study was carried out using data spanning three years. All<br> preterm newborns admitted to Amhara Regional State Comprehensive Specialized Hospitals’ NICU whose gestational<br> age is less than 37th weeks or birth weight less than 2500gram served as the source populations and also who were<br> admitted to the NICU between July 8, 2019, to June 7, 2022. Sadly, this study did not include preterm newborns with<br> incomplete daily weight records, those admitted after one week of life, the neonates transferred to another institution<br> before completing the study follow-up, or those with significant congenital defects that interfered with eating.<br> From the total of eight public Comprehensive Specialized hospitals, four Comprehensive Specialized hospitals were<br> included in this study. Approximately 363 preterm babies were recruited using a simple random sampling technique<br> and followed up until 28 days of age. Data were extracted using a checklist from neonatal medical records folders<br> and STATA Version 17 software was used for data analysis. The Cox --Proportional Hazards Model was used to evaluate<br> predictors of regaining birth weight, with a P-value of &lt; 0.05 deemed statistically significant.<br> Result In a study including 363 preterm newborns, it was the median time to regain birth weight was 18 days, and<br> 59.2% of them did so during the follow-up period. Regain birth weight was found to be significantly predicted by<br> birth weight, mode of delivery, and daily average weight gain.<br> Conclusion Based on the study’s findings, it appears that preterm neonates take a long time to regain their birth<br> weight. The study identified the mode of delivery, birth weight, and daily average weight gain as significant predictors<br> for birth weight regain among preterm neonates in the neonatal intensive care unit.<br>