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Abstract
Background: Sepsis is a major health problem all over the world, and it’s more lethal among neonates because of their inadequate and developing immunity. Late-onset sepsis (LOS) develops when neonates get an infection from the community or the hospital and it has a very poor prognosis in neonates. It gets influenced by many maternal and neonatal factors.
Objectives: This study was conducted with the objectives to assess the severity of LOS and the factors that determine it.
Material and Methods: This cross-sectional was conducted in a tertiary care hospital of Rawalpindi, Pakistan from June 2021 to August 2021. Participants were enrolled through nonprobability convenient sampling and fixed inclusion and exclusion criteria. Informed consent was taken from parents of all neonates and the objectives of the study were explained to them. Data was collected by self-designed proforma. Data was analyzed via descriptive and inferential statistics using IBM SPSS v 25. Chi-Square test was applied to determine the link between the severity of LOS and various included factors while a p-value less than 0.05 was considered significant.
Results: Severity of LOS was influenced significantly by mother’s education, mother’s parity, gender, gestational age, birth weight, cord clamping, congenital abnormality, feeding type, feeding hygiene, the passage of central catheter, while the impact of mother’s age and socioeconomic status was insignificant. The Incidence of severe degree of LOS was higher among neonates whose mothers’ had, illiterate educational status, young age, parity >3, lower-class status, and those neonates who had, male gender, preterm birth, low birth weight, early cord clamp, congenital abnormality, bottle feed, poor feeding hygiene, and the central catheter.
Conclusion: In brief, the severity of the late-onset sepsis is affected by various maternal and neonatal factors. By proper handling of these factors, we could bring a decline in neonatal mortality, and consequently, it would lead to a decrease in load over limited resources of public sector hospitals and a decline in burnout among physicians.
Key Words: Severity, Sepsis, Factors, Neonates, Hospital.