ABSTRACT BACKGROUND Human milk-based fortifiers (HMBF) are more costly than bovine milk-based fortifiers (BMBF); but, the efficacy of human or bovine fortification for infants born <1250 

g has yet to be fully elucidated. Our objective was to determine the effect of fortifier source on tertiary neonatal costs. METHODS Costs associated with tertiary neonatal care, including

direct and indirect hospital expenditures, feed-related costs and physician billing were analysed retrospectively for participants of OptiMoM (NCT02137473), a blinded RCT comparing fortifier

type for babies born <1250 g. A generalized linear model of cost according to fortifier type was created. RESULTS Mean [95% confidence interval] daily costs per patient, adjusted for

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ADDITIONAL ACCESS OPTIONS: * Log in * Learn about institutional subscriptions * Read our FAQs * Contact customer support SIMILAR CONTENT BEING VIEWED BY OTHERS HUMAN MILK-DERIVED FORTIFIERS

ARE LINKED WITH FEED EXTENSION DUE TO HYPOGLYCEMIA IN INFANTS <1250 G OR <30 WEEKS: A MATCHED RETROSPECTIVE CHART REVIEW Article 29 March 2023 IMMEDIATE FORTIFICATION OF HUMAN MILK

WITH A BOVINE MILK-DERIVED HUMAN MILK FORTIFIER IN VERY LOW BIRTH WEIGHT INFANTS: A RANDOMIZED CLINICAL TRIAL Article Open access 09 May 2024 DONOR HUMAN MILK VERSUS INFANT FORMULA FOR

LOW-RISK INFANTS: A SYSTEMATIC REVIEW Article Open access 06 June 2024 DATA AVAILABILITY The datasets generated during and/or analysed during the current study are not publically available

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ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS Fees incurred for analysis of costs were kindly waived by the finance departments of Sinai Health and The Hospital for Sick Children. FUNDING This work was funded by the

Canadian Institutes of Health Research by a grant to SU, DO and AK (CIHR FDN 143233). CIHR had no role in the design and conduct of the study. AUTHOR INFORMATION AUTHORS AND AFFILIATIONS *

Department of Pediatrics, Sinai Health, Toronto, ON, Canada Telford Yeung, Deborah L. O’Connor & Sharon Unger * Section of Neonatology, Windsor Regional Hospital, Windsor, ON, Canada

Telford Yeung * Neonatology, Sunnybrook Health Sciences Centre, Toronto, ON, Canada Asaph Rolnitsky * Department of Pediatrics, University of Toronto, Toronto, ON, Canada Asaph Rolnitsky 

& Sharon Unger * Translational Medicine Program, The Hospital for Sick Children, Toronto, ON, Canada Nicole Bando & Deborah L. O’Connor * Department of Nutritional Sciences,

University of Toronto, Toronto, ON, Canada Susan Trang, Deborah L. O’Connor & Sharon Unger * System Funding and Analytics, Sinai Health, Toronto, ON, Canada Andy Geer * Institute of

Health Policy, Management and Evaluation, University of Toronto, Toronto, ON, Canada Alex Kiss * Institute for Clinical Evaluative Sciences, Toronto, ON, Canada Alex Kiss Authors * Telford

Yeung View author publications You can also search for this author inPubMed Google Scholar * Asaph Rolnitsky View author publications You can also search for this author inPubMed Google

Scholar * Nicole Bando View author publications You can also search for this author inPubMed Google Scholar * Susan Trang View author publications You can also search for this author

inPubMed Google Scholar * Andy Geer View author publications You can also search for this author inPubMed Google Scholar * Alex Kiss View author publications You can also search for this

author inPubMed Google Scholar * Deborah L. O’Connor View author publications You can also search for this author inPubMed Google Scholar * Sharon Unger View author publications You can also

search for this author inPubMed Google Scholar CONTRIBUTIONS The study design was conducted by TY, AR, NB, ST, DOC and SU. Data analysis was performed by TY, AR, AG, and AK. The manuscript

was prepared by TY and critically edited by AR, NB, ST, AK, DOC, and SU. CORRESPONDING AUTHOR Correspondence to Sharon Unger. ETHICS DECLARATIONS COMPETING INTERESTS The authors declare no

competing interests. ETHICS APPROVAL This study was performed in accordance with the Declaration of Helsinki. Research ethics approval was obtained from Mount Sinai Hospital (REB number

14-0044-A) and The Hospital for Sick Children (REB number 1000063564). ADDITIONAL INFORMATION PUBLISHER’S NOTE Springer Nature remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in

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governed by the terms of such publishing agreement and applicable law. Reprints and permissions ABOUT THIS ARTICLE CITE THIS ARTICLE Yeung, T., Rolnitsky, A., Bando, N. _et al._ A comparison

of tertiary level NICU costs for infants born <1250 g supplemented with human versus bovine milk-based fortifiers. _J Perinatol_ 43, 1113–1118 (2023).

https://doi.org/10.1038/s41372-023-01677-6 Download citation * Received: 21 December 2022 * Revised: 22 March 2023 * Accepted: 12 April 2023 * Published: 21 April 2023 * Issue Date:

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