Criterion | Rationale |
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Inclusion criteria | Â |
Mothers who had a live and surviving birth at the WCH. | A birth must be viable and surviving to enable data linkage of immunisation encounters at two months and hospital admissions after birth. |
Mother's age was equal or above 18 years. | This is the age accepted by HRECs where informed consent can be given by an individual. |
Mother was a resident of SA. | The data linkage will involve only South Australian children whose immunisation encounters will be linked with admissions to a South Australian hospital. Cross-jurisdictional migration will be unaccounted for i.e., if a family moves interstate after the birth or an infant is admitted to an interstate hospital. |
Exclusion criteria | Â |
Maternal death, stillbirth or neonatal death. In the instance of twins or triplets, if one died, the mother was excluded. | To avoid causing distress to a bereaved family. |
Infant stays in the NICU of 2 weeks or longer. | To avoid causing distress to a family dealing with issues of infant illness and prematurity. |
Home births and births that occurred at other hospitals and were subsequently managed at the WCH. | To ensure each mother had received the same type of care prior to discharge and data were available in the hospital patient management system for all variables of interest. |