Screening for sickle cell disease in newborns: a systematic review

Table 2 Study characteristics

Study	Study design	Investigated newborns (intervention/control)	Number of newborns with SCD	Place and period of recruitment	Intervention/control	Main inclusion criteria	Patient-relevant endpoints	Funding source
King et al. [26]	Retrospective controlled cohort study	Intervention group: 150,803	435^a (SCD-S/S)	Jamaica Victoria Jubilee Hospital, Kingston, 11/1995–07/2006 University Hospital of the West Indies, Kingston, 10/1997–07/2006 Spanish Town Hospital, St. Catherine, 04/1998–07/2006	- Screening of live newborns for SCD - In the case of diagnosis of an SCD initial consultation and education programme - If possible, parents will receive a newborn first consultation at the clinic before the 4th month of life - Guidance of the parents on how to perform a splenic palpation - From the 4th month of life penicillin prophylaxis - Every 3 months routine examination in clinic, every 6 months after 5 years of age	- Consecutive live newborns - Screening of umbilical cord blood indicates SCD-S/S phenotype - Confirmation diagnostics confirmed SCD-S/S (electrophoresis)	Mortality in 1st, 2nd, 3rd, 5th, and 10th year of life^b	Not stated
		Control group^c: approx. 30,000	105 (SCD-S/S)	Jamaica Victoria Jubilee Hospital, Kingston, 06/1973–12/1975	-Screening of all live newborns for SCD -Follow-up every 3 months

SCD-S/S homozygous sickle cell disease
^aParents of 40 of the 435 newborns did not attend the initial consultation. Therefore, 395 newborns were included in the intervention programme
^bOther reported patient-relevant endpoints (hospitalisations, “serious illness”, and invasive pneumococcal disease) were not considered, as their operationalisations were unusable
^cFirst subpopulation of the birth cohort 06/1973–12/1981 (N = 100,000) of Victoria Jubilee Hospital, Kingston, Jamaica. The second (recruitment: 12/1975–01/1979) and third subpopulations (recruitment: 01/1979–12/1981) are not presented in the report because in these subpopulations the diagnosis of SCD was associated with secondary preventive measures; see Lee 1995 [25]

ISSN: 2046-4053