First Breath: Neonatal Resuscitation in Developing Countries

FIRST BREATH: Neonatal Resuscitation in Developing Countries

In developing countries, neonatal death from birth asphyxia is a major problem. This study will be conducted in several countries to determine if the combined Neonatal Resuscitation Program/Essential Newborn Care Program compared to the new World Health Organization (WHO) basic perinatal care education of health care providers (Essential Newborn Care Program) results in reduced mortality due to perinatal asphyxia.

Study Overview

Status

Completed

Conditions

Intervention / Treatment

Detailed Description

Birth asphyxia (defined as "failure to initiate and sustain breathing at birth") has been identified by the WHO as the most frequent cause of early deaths worldwide, accounting for about 20% of neonatal mortality. Although prompt resuscitation after birth can prevent many of the deaths and reduce disabilities in survivors from birth asphyxia, the WHO has concluded that resuscitation is often not initiated or the methods used are inadequate or wrong. The Neonatal Resuscitation Program (NRP) has been universally accepted in the developed world but has had limited dissemination in many developing countries. The primary hypothesis of this randomized controlled trial is that implementation of the combined Neonatal Resuscitation Program/WHO Essential Newborn Care (ENC) Program, compared to basic neonatal care education of health care providers (ENC only) will result in reduced neonatal 7 day mortality.

The study design will include education and training of personnel at the community level and implementation of an NRP intervention to assure validity, accuracy, and precision of the estimate of the treatment effects. The primary hypothesis is that implementation of the NRP educational programs will result in a decrease in neonatal mortality. The primary outcome will be a decrease in all cause early (7 day) neonatal mortality, mortality due to any cause, in the NRP trained communities when compared to the non-NRP trained communities. Secondary outcomes will include early (7 day) neonatal mortality associated with perinatal asphyxia, mortality or hypoxic ischemic encephalopathy (HIE) at 7 days, need for advanced resuscitation, and Apgar scores at 5 minutes as well as providers' self-efficacy, knowledge, competence, and performance in neonatal resuscitation.

This cluster randomized trial will be performed in communities of the Global Network (GN) sites. One half of the communities will be randomized to Early Training and Intervention with NRP; the other half will be randomized to Late Training and Intervention. Data collection will be obtained at baseline for both groups in order to establish baseline data including neonatal mortality and asphyxia. Following the baseline data collection period, training of the health care providers with the WHO Integrated Management of Pregnancy and Childbirth: Pregnancy, Postpartum, and Newborn Care Guide for Essential Practice (2003): Essential Newborn Care Program (ENC) will be performed using a train-the-trainer system. Following this training, communities will be randomized to Early or Late Training and Intervention with ENC. Initially, the Early Training and Intervention sites will have a program of train-the-trainers in NRP. Following a 12-month period of intervention (NRP vs. control), the providers of the Late Training and Intervention sites will have training in NRP.

Based on the early (first 7 days after birth) neonatal mortality data collected in preparation for this protocol, we estimate that there are 25 neonatal deaths/1000 live births. The trial is designed to identify a relative risk reduction of at least 20% (absolute risk reduction of 5% or 5/1000 live births, from 25/1000 to 20/1000 live births) in the treatment group as compared to the control group. The sample size necessary for the 20% relative risk reduction will be at least 32 communities with an average number of births of >500 per year; however, we plan to randomize at least 40 communities to account for potential drop-out. The proposed enrollment period for the randomized intervention will last one year.

Study Type

Interventional

Enrollment (Actual)

120009

Phase

  • Not Applicable

Contacts and Locations

This section provides the contact details for those conducting the study, and information on where this study is being conducted.

Study Locations

Participation Criteria

Researchers look for people who fit a certain description, called eligibility criteria. Some examples of these criteria are a person's general health condition or prior treatments.

Eligibility Criteria

Ages Eligible for Study

  • Child
  • Adult
  • Older Adult

Accepts Healthy Volunteers

No

Genders Eligible for Study

All

Description

Inclusion Criteria:

  • Live births with a weight ≥ 1500 grams (community minimum)
  • Infants born in participating communities

Exclusion Criteria:

  • Stillbirths
  • Infants with suspected/confirmed lethal malformations (e.g. anencephaly, Trisomy 13 or 18, or cyanotic or left-sided congenital heart disease that will not be repaired)
  • Any infant who is transported/brought to the center after delivery

Study Plan

This section provides details of the study plan, including how the study is designed and what the study is measuring.

How is the study designed?

Design Details

  • Primary Purpose: Diagnostic
  • Allocation: Randomized
  • Interventional Model: Parallel Assignment
  • Masking: None (Open Label)

Arms and Interventions

Participant Group / Arm
Intervention / Treatment
Other: Control
Experimental: NRP Training (Intervention)
Training in AAP neonatal resuscitation training program

What is the study measuring?

Primary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure
Time Frame
Neonatal mortality
Time Frame: 7 days
7 days

Secondary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure
Time Frame
Neonatal mortality due to perinatal asphyxia
Time Frame: 7 days
7 days
Hypoxic ischemic encephalopathy
Time Frame: 7 days
7 days
Need for advanced resuscitation
Time Frame: 7 days
7 days
Apgar score at 5 minutes
Time Frame: 5 minutes
5 minutes
Perinatal mortality at 7 days
Time Frame: 7 days
7 days
Stillbirth or neonatal mortality
Time Frame: 7 days
7 days
Stillbirth and/or neonatal mortality at 28 days
Time Frame: 28 days
28 days

Collaborators and Investigators

This is where you will find people and organizations involved with this study.

Publications and helpful links

The person responsible for entering information about the study voluntarily provides these publications. These may be about anything related to the study.

Study record dates

These dates track the progress of study record and summary results submissions to ClinicalTrials.gov. Study records and reported results are reviewed by the National Library of Medicine (NLM) to make sure they meet specific quality control standards before being posted on the public website.

Study Major Dates

Study Start

March 1, 2005

Primary Completion (Actual)

June 1, 2008

Study Completion (Actual)

June 1, 2008

Study Registration Dates

First Submitted

August 25, 2005

First Submitted That Met QC Criteria

August 25, 2005

First Posted (Estimate)

August 29, 2005

Study Record Updates

Last Update Posted (Estimate)

July 31, 2014

Last Update Submitted That Met QC Criteria

July 29, 2014

Last Verified

July 1, 2014

More Information

This information was retrieved directly from the website clinicaltrials.gov without any changes. If you have any requests to change, remove or update your study details, please contact register@clinicaltrials.gov. As soon as a change is implemented on clinicaltrials.gov, this will be updated automatically on our website as well.

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