Statistical Analysis of Infant Thermal Support Devices: Performance Evaluation in Heating and Energy Consumption

The occurrence of premature birth or specific challenges during the neonatal phase is far from being a recent concern. As the impact of birth and postnatal care on neonatal morbidity and mortality rates notions became evident, the necessity for specialized units dedicated to newborns emerged within hospitals. Following birth, newborns encounter several challenges; among these, regulating their own body temperature at an optimum level is the most common and critical one. To address this, multiple devices have been designed explicitly for newborns, providing thermal energy support to stabilize their body temperature. In this study, these devices have been categorized based on their heating functionalities. Consequently, the devices underwent standardized test procedures to analyze their thermal performance and electrical consumption. Although the purposes of the devices are considered to be different on newborns, when the data obtained from conducted analyses are taken into account, the devices with the least energy consumption is the warmer bed device (0.290 kWh), and the device with the most effective heating performance (mid-surrounding points mean temperature difference: $0. 5150 \pm 0. 0461 ^{\circ}\mathrm{C})$ is found to be the incubator.