11 new neonatal intensive care units (NICUs) in Greece (Aglaia Kyriakou Children’s Hospital, Athens; General University Hospital of Patras), Italy (Azienda Ospedaliero-Universitaria S. Anna di Ferrara; Ospedale Universitario Policlinico Paolo Giaccone, Palermo; Ospedale San Bortolo di Vicenza), Spain (Hospital General Universitario, Alicante; Hospital Universitario Cruces, Bilbao; Hospital Materno-Infantil del Hospital Universitario Regional de Málaga) and the United Kingdom (University Hospitals Coventry and Warwickshire, Coventry; St George's University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust, London; Norfolk and Norwich University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust, Norwich) have joined NeoDeco, a European multicenter study investigating whether optimised Kangaroo Care can reduce infection rates in preterm babies.

The study initially launched in June 2024 with 10 participating NICUs in Greece and Switzerland. The recent addition of these 11 new units marks a significant step in broadening the study’s impact, with more NICUs in Italy and the United Kingdom expected to join in the near future. This expansion could bring the total to 24 neonatal units across five countries.

NeoDeco aims to explore whether optimised Kangaroo Care, defined as early, frequent and sustained skin-to-skin contact between caregivers and preterm infants, can serve as an effective infection prevention and control measure in NICUs. While Kangaroo Care is already widely recommended by the World Health Organization for its benefits in improving neonatal health, its role in preventing the transmission of antibiotic-resistant bacteria remains underexplored.

With the study now reaching more hospitals across Europe, NeoDeco continues to advance research that could help shape best practices in neonatal care and improve outcomes for premature babies. Results from the study are expected by the end of 2026.