High level of resources for neonatal intensive care does not give US better outcomes

The United States has more neonatologists and neonatal intensive care beds per person than the United Kingdom, Canada, or Australia but higher rates of low birth weight and death among neonates, says a study from Dartmouth Medical School's Center for the Evaluative Clinical Sciences in Pediatrics (2002;109:1036-43).

The study compared neonatal intensive care resources, preconception care and prenatal care, rates of low birth weight and neonatal deaths (deaths within the first month), and infant mortality (deaths within the first year).

The United States has 6.1 neonatologists per …