LAUSR

Abstract Background Thailand, with an annual incidence rate of 12% ranks high in incidence of preterm birth. Preterm infants require specialized care which can be lengthy and costly both in terms of psychological and emotional stress and healthcare services. The rapid rise of cost of healthcare services is a major concern for Thai government and public. Purpose To assess and compare the growth patterns and cost of delivery of healthcare services of 50 preterm infants who were randomly assigned to either the control arm or the Maternal Participation Program (MPP) arm of the study. Methods 25 infants in the control arm and 25 infants in the MPP arm were followed up from the day of transfer to the neonatal ward until they were discharged from the hospital. Data on clinical parameters and cost of healthcare delivery were collected by reviewing medical charts and from institutional financial databases. The principle of intention-to-treat analysis was used to analyze the data using the SPSS package (Version 23). Results The average hospital stay (53 days vs. 60, P = .427) and days of oxygen delivery (21 days vs. 45, P = .047) for infants in the MPP arm were shorter than the control. At discharge from hospital, growth velocity of infants in the control arm had caught up with the MPP arm. Overall costs of healthcare delivery services for the preterm infants in control arm were 1.75 times higher than those in the MPP arm, with the procedural services as the costliest. Costs of drugs and the other ancillary services for the control arm was about 3-fold higher than for the MPP arm. Conclusion There were similar growth patterns and weight gain between the preterm infants in the control arm and the intervention arm. However, health care cost in preterm infants in the control arm was no statistically significant higher than those of the MPP arm. The difference of health care cost may arise from healthcare services and clinical interventions. Innovative and simple alternative strategy such as MPP can be an effective approach to curb the escalating cost of healthcare services.