Adherence to the Follow-up of the Newborn Exposed to Syphilis and Factors Associated with Loss to Follow-up

Introduction: All newborns exposed to syphilis in pregnancy must have outpatient follow-up. The interruption of this follow-up especially threatens those children who were not treated at birth.

Objective: To describe the clinical, epidemiological, and sociodemographic characteristics of pregnant women with syphilis and their newborns, and to investigate the factors associated with the discontinuation of the follow-up.

Methods: This is an observational, descriptive, analytical, and retrospective study of medical records of 254 children exposed to syphilis, who were assisted at the Congenital Infectious Clinic of the university hospital of the Universidade Federal do Paraná, between 2000 and 2010. The newborns were classified by reference according to their follow-up. Data were analyzed by means of the binary logistic regression model in order to identify the factors associated to drop out.

Results: The factors associated to the interruption of the follow-up were maternal age over 30 years, mothers with 3 or more children, and the absence of cross-infections by HIV and/or viral hepatitis.

Conclusion: Such findings demonstrate the need to identify these families and implement strategies to promote the establishment of bonds. A greater rigor to indicate the treatment of the disease at birth is recommended, as most of them do not properly follow up.