I want to find out the market size for a disposable medical product to
be used on low birth weight infants.  These babies will be found in
Neonatal Intensive Care Units (NICU).  Some keywords: pre-term,
premature, low birth weight.
It would be helpful to know how many of these babies are born each
year.  Alternatively, how many NICU beds exist in the US, how many
NICU patient-days are there, etc.
Alternatively, it would be helpful to know the sales volumes of other
disposables used in the NICU, such as ventilator tubing setups, ET
tube holders, CPAP nasal cannulae, etc.
Actual numbers with source data would make the best answer; pointers
to industry reports that are for sale are ok; pointers to market
research firms who specialize in this area are so-so; general industry
sources from which I can infer my answer are so-so.

Hi earsallakimbo:

Thanks for the interesting question. 

I was able to find the following information for you. 


Number of low birthweight babies born in U.S. 
*********************************************

According to the U.S. Center for Disease Control (National Center for
Health Statistics), the rate of low birthweight babies has held steady
at 7.6% since 1998.

Since there were 4,040,121 births in 2001, that means there were
approximately 307,050 low birthweight babies born in 2001.

Since there were 4,058,814 births in 2000, that means there were
approximately 308,470 low birthweight babies born in 2000.

Source: http://www.cdc.gov/nchs/releases/02news/birthlow.htm

Further detail on these figures can be found at: 

Births: Preliminary Data for 2001
URL: http://www.cdc.gov/nchs/data/nvsr/nvsr50/nvsr50_10.pdf

Page 4 of this report states:

"The rate of low birthweight (LBW) (infants born at less than 2,500
grams per 100 live births) was 7.6 percent for 2001, unchanged since
1998. The national low birthweight level declined in the 1970s and
early 1980s, but has risen 12 percent since the mid-1980s (1)...The
percent of infants born very low birthweight (VLBW) (infants born at
less than 1,500 grams) was 1.43, the same level reported for 2000. The
VLBW rate has risen from less than 1.2 percent in the 1970s and early
1980s."

Table 6 on page 13 of this report breaks the percentage of low
birthweight babies down by state and race of mother (for 2000 and
2001). This could be very helpful in targeting your product to where
it is most needed.

This report also contains other very useful statistics. 

Since I have found the primary information you are looking for and you
list all the other data types as "alternatives" to the actual data I
have provided, I will hold off researching any of the other data
unless you specifically ask me to in a Clarification Request.


I hope this information is of help to you.           
          
If you need any clarification of the information I have provided,
please ask using the Clarification feature and provide me with
additional details as to what you are looking for. As well, please
allow me to provide you with clarification(s) *before* you rate this
answer.
                      
Thank you.                       
                      
websearcher-ga                      
                      
              
Search Strategy (on Google):          

birth statistics u.s.
://www.google.com/search?hl=en&lr=&ie=ISO-8859-1&safe=off&q=birth+statistics+u.s.

---

Request for Answer Clarification by earsallakimbo-ga on 22 Nov 2002 21:18 PST

That was great, and super fast.  I'll give a sizeable tip if you can
tell me how many of these babies have tracheotomies and/or provide the
alternative answers shown above.

---

Clarification of Answer by websearcher-ga on 22 Nov 2002 22:16 PST

Hi earsallakimbo:

I'm glad you found the information helpful. :-)

While I wasn't able to find the tracheotomy information, I was able to
find the following data on one of the other questions.

Number of NICU beds in U.S. 
***************************

The most recent data I was able to find on this was from 1999, when
there were an estimated 19,000 NICU beds in the U.S. Given that that
was a couple of years ago, I'd guess that the number would be over
20,000 by now.

Source: Arizona MGMA 1999 Annual Conference
URL: http://www.gknet.com/articles/rjm_514085.htm
Quote: 
"1. The Supply of Neonatal Services. 
* 3,200 Approximate number of board-certified neonatologists in the
United States.
* 830 Number of NICUs in the United States 
* 19,000 Number of NICU beds in the United States"

I also found data that suggested there were 12,000 NICU beds in 1994.

Source: Access to Neonatal Intensive Care
URL: http://www.futureofchildren.org/information2827/information_show.htm?doc_id=80038
Quote: "In 1994, about 500 hospitals reported having a NICU for a
total of about 12,000 NICU beds"

That's all I was able to find tonight. I hope this additional
information helps. :-)

Thanks. 

websearcher-ga


Search Strategy on Google

"NICU beds" total "united states"

Good answer with a solid source.  Bonus points for quick service, and
here's a tip for partial research beyond minimum required.