Clinical Risk Index for Babies (CRIB)

CRIB is a neonatal illness severity scoring system designed to predict mortality risk in very low birth weight (VLBW) infants using birth weight, gestational age, gender, Apgar score, and initial blood gas parameters. Developed by Parry et al. in 1991 and refined as CRIB-II in 2005, it incorporates demographic and delivery room data along with early physiological measurements. CRIB is particularly valuable for international comparisons of neonatal outcome quality and has become a standard severity-adjustment tool in neonatal epidemiology.