Wecarried out a follow-up study to investigate variation in short-term outcome for preterm infants in 2 hospitals in Buraidah. We compared gestational age, birth weight, head circumference at birth and length of stay. Outcome measures were weight gain/day, feeding pattern on discharge and feeding pattern 1 month after discharge. Mean weight gain was significantly higher in hospital A, 9.6 [ +/- 19.7] g/day compared to -1.2 [ +/- 29.5] g/day in hospital B [P = 0.049]. The proportion of infants exclusively breastfed 1 month after discharge was 37.5% in hospital B compared to 13.2% in hospital A [P = 0.0224]. There are clear hospital level differences in short-term outcome in the same region, emphasizing the need for continuous follow-up and evaluation of differences in a perinatal audit
scite is a Brooklyn-based organization that helps researchers better discover and understand research articles through Smart Citations–citations that display the context of the citation and describe whether the article provides supporting or contrasting evidence. scite is used by students and researchers from around the world and is funded in part by the National Science Foundation and the National Institute on Drug Abuse of the National Institutes of Health.