The Economics of Mother's Milk Feedings in Neonatal Intensive Care Unit

描述（由申请人提供）：本项目的目的是调查出生时进入新生儿重症监护室（NICU）的极低出生体重儿（VLBW，<1500克）母乳喂养的经济后果。极低出生体重婴儿是卫生经济学研究的重要人群，因为他们出生的低收入和少数民族妇女不成比例，他们需要大量的卫生保健资源[2，37]（CDC 2004，Rogoski 1999）。文献综述将表明，尽管这一婴儿群体有独特的需求，但对极低出生体重婴儿母乳喂养剂量的经济影响进行了有限的研究。将进行2项平行分析以研究这些结局。第一项分析将使用回归模型来检查母乳的剂量（剂量是母乳占总喂养量的百分比），这会导致最佳的经济结果，如医院成本所衡量的。第二项分析将使用经济成本计算技术，以确定母亲为极低出生体重婴儿生产1盎司母乳的确切成本。这两个项目都涉及对以前收集的数据进行回顾性研究。这两项分析都试图表明母乳是最具成本效益的，也是VLBW婴儿的临床选择喂养方法。这项研究与公共卫生有关，因为越来越多的资源限制使得寻找具有成本效益的措施成为卫生官员的首要任务。该项目正在研究一种自然疗法，已被证明可以提供多种健康益处（即，降低患病率，改善发育）。这项研究将通过为母乳喂养提供进一步的经济论据，帮助卫生官员实现公共母乳喂养目标。最后，它将向母亲和供应商显示为获得最大经济效益所需的牛奶剂量以及实现该剂量所需的资源。

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): The purpose of this project is to investigate the economic outcomes of breastfeeding in very low birth weight infants (VLBW, <1500 grams) admitted to the neonatal intensive care unit (NICU) at birth. VLBW infants are an important population for health economics research because they are born disproportionately to low income and minority women, and they require a significant amount of health care resources [2, 37] (CDC 2004, Rogoski 1999). The literature review will show that, despite the unique needs of this infant group, limited research has been conducted on the economic impacts of dose of breastfeeding in VLBW infants. 2 parallel analyses will be performed to study these outcomes. The first analysis will use regression modeling to examine the dose of mother's milk (dose is the percent of total feedings that are breast milk) that results in the best economic outcome as measured by hospital costs. The second analysis will use economic costing techniques to identify the exact cost to produce 1 ounce of mother's milk for VLBW infants by their mothers. Both projects involve retrospective study of previously collected data. Both analyses will attempt to show that mother's milk is the most cost efficient as well as the clinical choice feeding method for VLBW infants. This research is relevant to public health because increasing resource constraints have made finding cost effective measures a top priority for health officials. This project is investigating a natural therapy that has been shown to provide a multitude of health benefits (i.e., lower rates of illness, improved development) for VLBW infants. The study will help health officials to meet public breastfeeding goals by providing further economic arguments for mother's milk feeding. Finally, it will show mothers and providers the dose of milk that needs to be achieved in order to gain maximum economic benefit and the resources that are needed to achieve that dose.