Observational studyArchives of disease in childhood. Fetal and neonatal edition2025
Improving outcomes for very preterm babies in England: does place of birth matter? Findings from OPTI-PREM, a national cohort study.
Observational study in Archives of disease in childhood. Fetal and neonatal edition, 2025. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. It is linked to trial NCT02994849 (OPTI-Prem), which is not on this map. Cited by 2 papers, 1 of them a synthesis that pooled it.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
OPTI-Prem: Optimising Neonatal Service Provision for Preterm Babies Born Between 27 and 31 Weeks of Gestation in England Using National Data, Qualitative Research and Economic Analysis
Who cites it
2 citing papers in PubMed, 1 synthesis or guideline pooled it.
- Prognosis of neonates receiving invasive mechanical ventilation in low-resource settings: a systematic review and prognostic meta-analysis.European journal of pediatrics · 2026Pooled it
- Neonatal Interfacility Transport to Tertiary and Quaternary Centres: Clinical Outcomes and System-Level Determinants-A Systematic Review.Children (Basel, Switzerland) · 2026Review
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
14 authors.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
objectiveBabies born between 27
designRetrospective national cohort study.
settingLNU, NICU, England. PATIENTS: UK National Neonatal Research Database whole population data for births between 27 OUTCOME MEASURES: Death during neonatal care, up to 1 year (infant mortality), surgically treated necrotising enterocolitis, retinopathy of prematurity, severe brain injury (SBI), bronchopulmonary dysplasia.
interventionBirth in NICU versus LNU setting. We used an instrumental variable (maternal excess travel time between the nearest NICU and LNU) estimation approach to determine treatment effect.
resultsOf 18 847 babies (NICU: 10 379; LNU: 8468), 574 died in NICU/LNU care, and 121 postdischarge (infant mortality 3.7%). We found no effect of birth setting on neonatal or infant mortality. Significantly more babies born into LNU settings experienced SBI (mean difference -1.1% (99% CI -2.2% to -0.1%)). This was attenuated after excluding births at 27 weeks, and early postnatal transfers.
conclusionsIn England, LNU teams should use clinical judgement, risk assessing benefits of transfer versus risk of SBI for preterm births at 27 weeks of gestation. 28 weeks of gestation is a safe threshold for preterm birth in either NICU/LNU settings. TRIAL REGISTRATION NUMBER: NCT02994849/ISRCTN74230187.
Indexed as
Identifiers
What OpenQuestion holds
Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.