Neonatal Intensive Care Units (NICUs) have contributed significantly to the declines in neonatal and post-neonatal mortality seen in this country. The role of NICU care in changing patterns of morbidity is equally important. Experience to date has generally supported the notion that therapies which lessen mortality also lessen morbidity. However, as new care strategies emerge, continued affirmation of this relationship is necessary. Such verification may be difficult, especially for those groups of children who are not routinely followed by their neonatal caregivers. Whereas outcome of neonatal care for low-birth weight infants has been well studied, knowledge of outcome in normal birthweight NICU survivors is less complete. The current project will provide outcome information on a wide range of health dimensions in the normal birthweight population of a single NICU. In addition, it will test the feasibility of a survey approach to obtaining outcome measurement for all NICU patients. Term newborns with birthweights greater than 2500 grams cared for at the NICU during a one year period will serve as the study cohort. Approximately 350 such infants are cared for each year. All infants known to survive, will be studied at 6 months of age. The telephone survey instrument will assess: 1. Sociodemographic characteristics of the family, 2. The pregnancy with the index patient, 3. health care resource use following discharge from the NICU by the index patient, 4. acute and chronic health problems of the index patients, 5. developmental achievement of the index patient, 6. parental perception of the child's health, and, 6. the impact of neonatal acute illness on the family. Review of the patients NICU stay will include assessment the use of various NICU care strategies and of severity of illness. Exploratory descriptions of outcome characteristics will be performed followed by inferential descriptions of associations between neonatal and outcome characteristics. In addition, comparisons of respondents and non- respondents will permit characterization of those not assessable by these techniques.
