摘要Background Newborn care guidelines recommend assessments within a week of discharge from maternity care.However,the optimal timing and effectiveness to prevent neonatal hospital readmission are debated.This study aimed to determine the association between early follow-up visits(EFVs)within three days of postpartum discharge and hospital readmission of newborns up to 15 days of life.Methods This population-based data-linkage study used data from the French National Health Care Database."Healthy"singleton term infants with a gestational age(GA)of ≥ 36 weeks,born between January 1,2017,and November 30,2018,in Southern France,were included.A multivariate regression analysis was performed.Results Among the 67,359 included infants,1519(2.25％)were hospitalized.The principal causes of hospitalization were infectious diseases(42.4％)and jaundice or growth/nutrition disorders(36.1％).Hospitalized infants were more likely to be born to young and socioeconomically deprived mothers,to be male(54.4％vs.50.6％,P＜0.001),or born early(GA＜38 weeks;28.5％vs.20.5％,P＜0.001).They received 6％less EFVs than non-hospitalized infants(63.7％vs.67.8％,P＜0.001).The multivariable regression logistic analysis revealed that infants who received EFVs had 13％lower odds of being hospitalized than infants without EFVs,with an adjusted odds ratio of 0.87(95％confidence interval=0.78-0.96;P＜0.01).Conclusion EFVs within three days were associated with a 13％reduction in the rate of neonatal hospital readmission.Therefore,EFVs should be implemented to improve infant health and reduce healthcare costs.