Effectiveness of Kangaroo Mother Care in Reducing Morbidity and Mortality in Preterm Neonates
- Dr Nazish Khaleeq, Poonch medical college Rawalakot
- Dr Baddar Sattar, PMC
- Dr Adees Ahmed, Ayub Teaching Hospital Abbottabad
- Saif Pervaiz, Div HQ teaching hospital, Mirpur ajk
- Qaisar Liaquat, Jinnah Hospital Lahore
- Husnain Javaid, Karam Bhari Memorial Hospital Dhadhumber Rawalpindi
ABSTRACT:
Background: Preterm birth was an important cause of neonatal morbidity and death worldwide, especially in low- and middle-income countries. Conventional neonatal intensive care usually required advanced resources, which were not always readily available. Kangaroo Mother Care (KMC) with prolonged skin-to-skin contact, exclusive breastfeeding, and early discharge with follow up had come as an alternative, cost-effective approach to improve outcomes among neonates. However, local data on its effectiveness for the reduction of morbidity and mortality among preterm neonates had been limited.
Aim: This research was designed to assess the efficacy of the Kangaroo Mother Care in reducing morbidity and mortality in preterm neonates.
Methods: This was a cross-section study performed on the diagnostic accuracy at Pakistan Institute of Medical Sciences (PIMS), Islamabad from January2023 to June 2023. A total of 70 preterm neonates who had clinical suspicion of complications associated with prematurity were recruited based on the non-probability technique of consecutive sampling. Neonates receiving the Kangaroo Mother Care received evaluation for outcomes, such as hypothermia, sepsis, respiratory distress, feeding intolerance, length of hospital stay and mortality. Clinical assessment was compared to confirmatory investigations where required. In order to identify the effectiveness of KMC in reducing adverse outcomes, sensitivity, specificity, positive predictive value (PPV) and NPA were calculated.
Results: The study population consisted of 70 preterm neonates, the mean gestational age of neonates was 33.4 +- 1.8 weeks and mean birth weight was 1.85 +- 0.42 kg. Neonates treated by Kangaroo Mother Care had a substantial decrease in hypothermia (18.6%), sepsis (14.3%) and respiratory distress (20.0%) compared with expected institutional baseline rates. The sensitivity and specificity of KMC against major morbidity was 85.7% and 78.9% respectively with PPV 81.0% and NPV 84.0%. The overall mortality rate was 7.1% which was low compared to previously reported institutional numbers.
Conclusion: Kangaroo Mother Care was found to be a useful intervention in reducing morbidity and mortality among preterm neonates. It showed itself to be highly sensitive and have acceptable specificity in preventing major complications of prematurity. KMC could be considered a good, low-cost approach to reduce neonatal mortality in resource poor settings.
Keywords: Kangaroo Mother Care, Preterm Neonates, Neonatal Morbidity, Neonatal Mortality, Sensitivity, Specificity, Cross Sectional Study.