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Saving Newborn Babies – The Benefits of Interventions in Neonatal Care in Norway over More Than 40 Years
Author(s) -
Grytten Jostein,
Monkerud Lars,
Skau Irene,
Eskild Anne,
Sørensen Rune J.,
Saugstad Ola Didrik
Publication year - 2017
Publication title -
health economics
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.55
H-Index - 109
eISSN - 1099-1050
pISSN - 1057-9230
DOI - 10.1002/hec.3314
Subject(s) - psychological intervention , medicine , infant mortality , neonatal mortality , pediatrics , birth weight , health care , low birth weight , demography , pregnancy , population , environmental health , nursing , sociology , biology , economics , genetics , economic growth
The aim of this study was to examine the effect that the introduction of new medical interventions at birth has had on mortality among newborn babies in Norway during the period 1967–2011. During this period, there has been a significant decline in mortality, in particular for low birth weight infants. We identified four interventions that together explained about 50% of the decline in early neonatal and infant mortality: ventilators, antenatal steroids, surfactant and insure. The analyses were performed on a large set of data, encompassing more than 1.6 million deliveries (Medical Birth Registry of Norway). The richness of the data allowed us to perform several robustness tests. Our study indicates that the introduction of new medical interventions has been a very important channel through which the decline in mortality among newborn babies occurred during the second half of the last century. © 2016 The Authors. Health Economics published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd.