Diagnostic Accuracy of WHO IMCI Visual Inspection for Neonatal Jaundice: A Prospective Multi-Country Cohort

BACKGROUND

Adverse consequences of neonatal hyperbilirubinemia disproportionately affect babies in low- and middle-income countries. Laboratory measurement of total serum bilirubin is limited in low-resource settings, necessitating simpler alternatives. Our study aimed to evaluate the diagnostic accuracy of visual inspection of jaundice via the World Health Organization Integrated Management of Childhood Illnesses algorithm compared to transcutaneous bilirubinometry for the identification of hyperbilirubinemia in community settings.

METHODS

Hyperbilirubinemia was assessed by visual inspection for jaundice and transcutaneous bilirubinometry at 0-72 hours, 3-5 days, and 5-14 days postnatal in the PRISMA prospective cohort study in six sites in Asia and Africa. We assessed sensitivity, specificity, and positive and negative percent agreement.

RESULTS

We analyzed data from 14,331 infants, including 1,852 preterm infants. 15% had hyperbilirubinemia, as defined by transcutaneous bilirubin values and the NICE nomograms, at 3-5 days postnatal. Visual inspection had a sensitivity of 16%, specificity of 96%, positive percent agreement of 56%, and negative percent agreement of 86% at 3-5 days postnatal age, pooled across all sites and gestational ages, versus transcutaneous bilirubin defined by NICE nomograms.

CONCLUSION

The poor sensitivity of visual inspection underscores an urgent need for accurate, affordable screening tools to improve screening for hyperbilirubinemia.

Impact Statement:

• We found poor sensitivity of visual inspection, identifying fewer than one in five neonatal jaundice cases, suggesting much worse diagnostic accuracy in this community-based context across five low- and middle-income countries (LMICs) as compared to the previous studies conducted in health facilities.

• Among preterm infants, sensitivity was modestly higher than in term infants but remained clinically inadequate, reinforcing that visual inspection alone is insufficient for this high-risk group.

• Despite standardized training and biannual refresher sessions, our study suggests that training for health care workers alone is unlikely to make visual inspection a reliable case-detection tool.

• Our findings suggest that the WHO should re-evaluate the IMCI recommendations to include tools with higher diagnostic accuracy to identify neonatal jaundice.

• Community-level jaundice screening should move beyond visual inspection alone towards validated, low-cost, objective tools; icterometers and smartphone apps with high diagnostic accuracy are promising alternatives.