Table 4.

Early vs late-initiated KMC – critical outcomes

Outcome	Studies	Number of participants	Pooled relative risk (95% CI)
Mortality by 28 days of life	3	3533	0.78 (0.66 to 0.92)
Mortality at 6 months of age	1	72	1.0 (0.15 to 6.72)
Sepsis until 28 days	2	3415	0.85 (0.76 to 0.96)
Exclusive breastfeeding at discharge	3	3464	1.12 (1.07 to 1.16)
Exclusive breastfeeding at 28 days of age	3	2841	1.01 (0.98 to 1.04)
Hypothermia at discharge or by 28 days	3	3553	0.74 (0.61 to 0.90)
Weight gain at 28-day follow-up (g/d)	1	204	MD −2.20 (−5.26 to 0.86)
Nosocomial sepsis
Clinical sepsis	2	3415	0.85 (0.75 to 0.95)
Culture-positive sepsis	1	279	1.53 (0.44 to 5.31)
Re-admission to hospital at 4 weeks of age	1	73	1.95 (0.18 to 20.5)
Length of hospital stay (days)	3	3498	−0.30 (−0.31 to −0.29)

MD, mean difference.