Introduction:

almost 20% of premature babies abandons the follow-up in hospitals and they have worse outcomes than those who continue the program. Obtaining data on the involvement of Primary Care pediatricians (PAPs) in monitoring premature babies born at less than 32 weeks or weighing less than 1500 g is necessary to propose strategies for improvement.

Methods:

it is an observational, transversal, descriptive study, in the area of ​​the 17 Spanish autonomous communities, through PAPenRED network (304 PAPs). Data were collected by questionnaires filled out online about the number of premature babies by pediatrician, the type of monitoring and the difficulties found in their attention. Frequency distributions, percentages, qualitative variables are described.

Results:

870 very premature infants were included with an average of 3.8 per pediatrician. 68.84% of PAPs do not share a common monitoring program between hospitals and Primary Care centers, despite the fact that 99% of the pediatricians would like to have it. 84.27% say that these children have more complex problems. The diseases that occur more frequently compared to those born at term are family anxiety, respiratory disease and problems in relation to growth, feeding, motor development and cognitive and behavioral issues.

Conclusions:

PAPs believe necessary commmon programs between hospitals and Primary Care centers for monitoring the very premature babies.

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