Background
Human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) sero-prevalence rate during pregnancy was 26% in
2009 in Gauteng. HIV exposure is associated with high morbidity and mortality in infants.
Few studies have assessed the effect of HIV exposure on morbidity and mortality in very low
birth weight (VLBW) infants.
Aim
To determine the infant characteristics at birth, morbidity during hospital stay and mortality
at hospital discharge of VLBW infants according to maternal HIV status.
Methods
This was a retrospective cross sectional descriptive study. Hospital records of VLBW infants
admitted at the Chris Hani Baragwanath Academic Hospital, Division of Neonatology from
1st January 2011 to 30th June 2011 were reviewed. Data were collected in an Excel spread
sheet and imported to STATA version 12 for analysis.
Results
302 hospital records of VLBW infants admitted from January to June 2011 were retrieved
and reviewed. About a third (34.1%) of VLBW infants were born to mothers who were HIV
positive. There were more babies who weighed <1000 grams in the HIV-exposed infants
compared to HIV-unexposed infants (p-0.001). HIV exposed infants had a smaller head
circumference (p-0.003), a shorter body length (p-0.006) and significantly more severe grades
of IVH (p <0.001) compared to HIV unexposed infants. The overall mortality rate in VLBW
infants was 27%, with HIV exposed infants having a mortality rate of 38.6% compared to
21% in the HIV-negative infants (p-0.002). Multivariate analysis showed that the main
predictor of mortality was birth weight (p<0.001).
Conclusion
Though on univariate analysis maternal HIV status was associated with mortality in VLBW
infants, this effect was not found on multivariate analysis. Therefore the final conclusion
from this study is that maternal HIV status has no independent effect on outcomes to hospital
discharge in VLBW infants. Birth weight was the predictor of survival in VLBW infants.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:netd.ac.za/oai:union.ndltd.org:wits/oai:wiredspace.wits.ac.za:10539/15489 |
| Date | 10 September 2014 |
| Creators | Tiam, Mayowa Modinat |
| Source Sets | South African National ETD Portal |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Thesis |
| Format | application/pdf |
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