The Prevalence of Feeding Intolerance in Ethiopian Versus Other Ethnic Origin Newborns Hospitalized in the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit

Introduction: Feeding intolerance (FI), defined as the inability to digest enteral feedings associated with increased gastric residuals, abdominal distension and or emesis is frequently encountered in newborns admitted to the intensive care unit (NICU) and might lead to disruption in the feeding plan.

Aims: To evaluate whether FI is more prevalent in Ethiopian origin newborns (EON) versus other ethnic origin newborns (OEON).

Methods: A retrospective case control study based on medical records of newborns admitted to Kaplan Medical Center (KMC) between 2014 to 2016. The study group included 50 EON and the control group 100 OEON.

Results: We found that the EON group had significantly higher prevalence of FI (34%) compared with OEON group (15%) (p=0.007). Breast milk based feeding was more prevalent in the EON group. There was no difference in the prevalence of Necrotizing Enterocolitis, intestinal perforation or milk allergy between the two groups.

OEON with FI had higher rate of other neonatal co-morbidities and respiratory support compared to OEON without FI. This association was not found in the EON group.

There was no statistical difference between the two groups in the demographic, anthropometric parameters or neonatal co morbidities.

Conclusions: FI was more prevalent in EON versus OEON group. We speculate that the difference might be associated with an intrinsic factor in the EON group, such as lactose intolerance or difference in the microbiome. More studies are needed to confirm that data.