A cross-sectional study of risk factors associated with neonatal jaundice

In this study, the aim was to find out the risk factors associated with neonatal jaundice in a tertiary care hospital in Delhi, India. In our cross-sectional study of 661 neonates (601 term neonates and 60 preterm neonates), the results showed that almost all neonates had transient unconjugated hyperbilirubinemia in the neonatal period, with more than ninety percent affected during their first week of life. The prevalence of physiologic jaundice in neonates was 86.99% and the prevalence of pathologic indirect hyperbilirubinemia in neonates was 13.01%. In the present study, the Glucose-6-Phosphate Dehydrogenase (G6PD) activity was normal in all the neonates with pathologic jaundice. In our study, the risk factors like early onset neonatal sepsis, preterm gestation, low birth weight, very low birth weight, congenital abnormality (most commonly ventricular septal defect), serum TSH level (≥10mIU/L), polycythemia and infant of diabetic mother showed a strong association with pathologic indirect hyperbilirubinemia. Besides, the association of pathologic jaundice with other factors like male neonate, ABO or Rh incompatibility, anemia, primigravida mother and vaginal delivery was considered to be not statistically significant, in our study.