Risk factors for early neonatal infection in patients treated in a general hospital

Background: neonatal infection is one of the main causes of death of newborns worldwide and therefore one of the elements that mostly contributes to the increase of this indicator.Objective: to identify some risk factors associated with early neonatal infection, in the department of neonatology of the “Dr. Ernesto Guevara de la Serna” General Teaching Hospital of Las Tunas, Cuba, from January to December 2016.Methods: a retrospective analytical study of some risk factors associated with early neonatal infection was performed, at the aforementioned hospital service and during the period herein declared. The sample consisted of 162 live newborns, divided into two groups: the cases, consisting of the 54 who presented early neonatal infection and 108 controls, without infection, selected by simple random sampling. The main variables were: urinary tract infection, vaginal discharge syndrome, number of digital vaginal examination, gestational age and premature membrane rupture.Results: 35,2 % of the cases had a history of a mother with urinary infection, with an early infection 4.3 times more frequent. The risk was also four times greater for vaginal discharge syndrome, twice when the mother had multiple examinations, 16,6 times in the preterm cases, 2,68 times when premature membrane rupture exceeded 18 hours.Conclusions: the risk factors for early neonatal infection identified were: urinary tract infection, vaginal discharge syndrome, gestational age and premature membrane rupture.