The association between sex and neonatal respiratory distress syndrome.

BACKGROUND: To investigate the association between sex and neonatal respiratory distress syndrome (NRDS).

METHODS: Neonates born at our hospital and transferred to the neonatal department within 1 h were retrospectively analyzed. Depending on whether they developed NRDS during their hospital stay, the neonates was divided into NRDS and non-NRDS groups. There were 142 neonates in the NRDS group (95 males and 47 females) and 310 neonates in the non-NRDS group (180 males and 140 females). The neonates' data on gestational age (GA), sex, birth weight, white blood cell count (WBC), platelet count (PLT), C-reactive protein (CRP), total immunoglobulin M (total IgM), gestational diabetes mellitus(GDM), antenatal steroids use, meconium-stained amniotic fluid, and preterm premature rupture of membranes(PPROM) were gathered.

RESULTS: 452 neonates (265 males and 187 females) were involved for the purpose of collecting basic characteristic. Multivariate analysis, males had a 1.87 times higher risk of NRDS than females (P < 0.05) after controlling for the confounding effects of GA, birth weight, WBC, PLT, CRP, total IgM, GDM, antenatal steroids use, meconium-stained amniotic fluid, and PPROM.

CONCLUSIONS: Sex was associated with NRDS; males had a considerably higher risk of NRDS than females.