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. 2022 Sep 12;12:15345. doi: 10.1038/s41598-022-19423-x

Table 2.

Neonatal characteristics and complications among the 17,957 newborns that were born in the years 2018, 2019, and 2020.

Year of childbirth
Before COVID-19 pandemic During COVID-19 pandemic
2018 2019 p-valuea 2020 p-valueb p-valuec
Number of newborns (n) 5597 6339 6021
Preterm birth (n, %) 218 (3.9) 238 (3.8) 0.690 154 (2.6)  < 0.001  < 0.001
Admission to neonatal intensive care unit (n, %) 190 (3.4) 251 (4.0) 0.103 168 (2.8) 0.060  < 0.001
Respiratory distress syndrome (n, %) 413 (7.4) 549 (8.7) 0.010 395 (6.6) 0.083  < 0.001
Respiratory support (n, %) 178 (3.2) 242 (3.8) 0.059 159 (2.6) 0.083  < 0.001
Use of artificial pulmonary surfactant (n, %) 39 (0.7) 58 (0.9) 0.185 35 (0.6) 0.434 0.032
Low birth weight (n, %) 330 (5.9) 353 (5.6) 0.442 224 (3.7)  < 0.001  < 0.001
Retinopathy of prematurity (n, %) 37 (0.7) 41 (0.7) 0.923 14 (0.2)  < 0.001  < 0.001

The denominator for the percentage is the number of newborns.

P-values of Pearson’s chi-square test, a: between 2018 and 2019, b: between 2018 and 2020, and c: between 2019 and 2020 are shown. We used a P value of 0.0167 to indicate significance to correct for multiplicity.