Conclusion : Positive clinical ly meaningful effects ( > 5 points ) are seen to an age of 36 months , but are no longer present at 5 years
Objective : To determine in a systematic review , whether interventions for infant development that involve parents , improve neurodevelopment at 12 months corrected age or older .
A randomized clinical trial of early hospital discharge and home follow-up of very-low-birth-weight infants.
To determine the safety , efficacy , and cost savings of early hospital discharge of very-low-birth-weight infants ( less than or equal to 1500 g ) , we r and omly assigned infants to one of two groups . Infants in the control group ( n = 40 ) were discharged according to routine nursery criteria , which included a weight of about 2200 g. Those in the early-discharge group ( n = 39 ) were discharged before they reached this weight if they met a st and ard set of conditions . For families of infants in the early-discharge group , instruction , counseling , home visits , and daily on-call availability of a hospital-based nurse specialist for 18 months were provided . Infants in the early-discharge group were discharged a mean of 11 days earlier , weighed 200 g less , and were two weeks younger at discharge than control infants . The mean hospital charge for the early-discharge group was 27 percent less than that for the control group ( $ 47,520 vs. $ 64,940 ; P less than 0.01 ) , and the mean physician 's charge was 22 percent less ( $ 5,933 vs. $ 7,649 ; P less than 0.01 ) . The mean cost of the home follow-up care in the early-discharge group was $ 576 , yielding a net saving of $ 18,560 for each infant . The two groups did not differ in the numbers of rehospitalizations and acute care visits , or in measures of physical and mental growth . We conclude that early discharge of very-low-birth-weight infants , with follow-up care in the home by a nurse specialist , is safe and cost effective
Conclusion : Positive clinical ly meaningful effects ( > 5 points ) are seen to an age of 36 months , but are no longer present at 5 years
Objective : To determine in a systematic review , whether interventions for infant development that involve parents , improve neurodevelopment at 12 months corrected age or older .