Table 1.
Characteristics of 345 very preterm infants born in Stockholm before and after the implementation of routine probiotics supplementation.
| Perinatal Characteristics a | No Probiotics (n = 206) |
Probiotics (n = 139) |
p-Value |
|---|---|---|---|
| Gestational age, weeks (SD) | 30.3 (1.1) | 30.2 (1.1) | 0.50 |
| Birth weight, Fenton z-score (SD) | 0.0 (0.9) | 0.02 (0.8) | 0.78 |
Birth weight for gestational age, n (%)
|
176 (85.4) 9 (4.4) 21 (10.2) |
122 (87.8) 5 (3.6) 12 (8.6) |
0.82 |
| Male, n (%) | 113 (54.8) | 68 (48.9) | 0.28 |
| Singleton, n (%) | 155 (75.2) | 100 (71.9) | 0.49 |
| Vaginal delivery, n (%) | 45 (21.8) | 41 (29.5) | 0.11 |
| Apgar score < 7 at 5 min b, n (%) | 35 (17.2) | 18 (13.0) | 0.29 |
| Transient tachypnea, n (%) | 89 (43.2) | 60 (43.2) | 0.99 |
| Respiratory distress syndrome, n (%) | 86 (41.8) | 56 (40.3) | 0.79 |
| Invasive ventilation c, days (SD) | 4.5 (6.4) | 2.4 (2.6) | 0.18 |
| CPAP/HFNC d, days (SD) | 13.2 (15.2) | 13.4 (14.6) | 0.90 |
| Bronchopulmonary dysplasia, n (%) | 10 (4.8) | 4 (2.9) | 0.36 |
| Patent ductus arteriosus, n (%) | 2 (1.0) | 4 (2.9) | 0.18 |
CPAP (continuous positive airway pressure), HFNC (high flow nasal canula), a presented as mean value and standard deviation, or number of infants and proportion, b missing data n = 4, c based on 33 and 19 infants needing any invasive ventilation in the no probiotics and probiotics groups, respectively, d based on 202 and 128 infants needing CPAP and/or HFNC in the no probiotics and probiotics groups, respectively.