Determinants of the growth of prematures admitted to the Fousseyni DAOU hospital in Kayes in 2021

Abstract

Introduction: Premature babies are more likely to be stunted than full-term children. So, this study aimed to study the factors associated with the growth of premature babies admitted to the Fousseyni Daou hospital in Kayes (HFDK) in 2021. Material and methods: This was a prospective longitudinal study carried out from December 2020 to November 2021 in the pediatric department of Fousseyni Daou hospital in Kayes HFDK. It involved 162 premature babies, recruited exhaustively and followed until the age of six months. The socio-demographic characteristics of parents and premature infants, maternal obstetric history, anthropometric parameters, care and feeding of premature infants were collected. The Schwartz formula was used to calculate the sample size with 12% prematurity in Mali. The SPSS 20 software was used for bivariate statistical analyzes with the calculation of relative risks. A p ≤0.05 attesting to a statistically significant difference. Informed verbal consent from parents was obtained. Results: Among mothers, 59.3% were aged 19 to 30, 63% were homemakers and 46.9% were out of school. Approximately 59.3% of premature babies were female, 74.69% from single fetal pregnancies, 58% were born between 32 to 36 weeks of gestation and 90.7% had benefited from mixed breastfeeding. The sex of the premature baby (p=0.02) and the number of children born from the multi-fetal pregnancy (p=0.04) were associated with their growth. Conclusion: This study showed that growth of premature babies would be linked to male gender and multi-fetal pregnancy. Taking these factors into account could promote good growth of premature babies.