scholarly journals Are COVID-19 mitigation measures reducing preterm birth rate in China?

2021 ◽  
Vol 6 (8) ◽  
pp. e006359
Author(s):  
Zheng Bian ◽  
Xiaoxian Qu ◽  
Hao Ying ◽  
Xiaohua Liu

ObjectivePreterm birth is the leading cause of child morbidity and mortality globally. We aimed to determine the impact of the COVID-19 mitigation measures implemented in China on 23 January 2020 on the incidence of preterm birth in our institution.DesignLogistic regression analysis was used to investigate the association between the national COVID-19 mitigation measures implemented in China and the incidence of preterm birth.SettingShanghai First Maternity and Infant Hospital, Shanghai China.ParticipantsAll singleton deliveries abstracted from electronic medical record between 1 January 2014 to 31 December 2020.Main outcome measuresPreterm birth rate.ResultsData on 164 107 singleton deliveries were available. COVID-19 mitigation measures were consistently associated with significant reductions in preterm birth in the 2-month, 3-month, 4-month, 5-month time windows after implementation (+2 months, OR 0.80, 95% CI 0.69 to 0.94; +3 months, OR 0.83, 95% CI 0.73 to 0.94; +4 months, OR 0.82, 95% CI 0.73 to 0.92; +5 months, OR 0.84, 95% CI 0.76 to 0.93). These reductions in preterm birth were obvious across various degrees of prematurity, but were statistically significant only in moderate-to-late preterm birth (32 complete weeks to 36 weeks and 6 days) subgroup. The preterm birth difference disappeared gradually after various restrictions were removed (7th–12th month of 2020, OR 1.02, 95% CI 0.94 to 1.11). There was no difference in stillbirth rate across the study time window.ConclusionSubstantial decreases in preterm birth rates were observed following implementation of the national COVID-19 mitigation measures in China. Further study is warranted to explore the underlying mechanisms associated with this observation.

2018 ◽  
Vol 32 (13) ◽  
pp. 2143-2151 ◽  
Author(s):  
Michelle N. Han ◽  
Betsy E. O’Donnell ◽  
Melanie M. Maykin ◽  
Juan M. Gonzalez ◽  
Khalil Tabsh ◽  
...  

2011 ◽  
Vol 28 (09) ◽  
pp. 703-708 ◽  
Author(s):  
Margaret Carter ◽  
Sharon Fowler ◽  
Alan Holden ◽  
Elly Xenakis ◽  
Donald Dudley

Author(s):  
Jasper V Been ◽  
Lizbeth Burgos Ochoa ◽  
Loes CM Bertens ◽  
Sam Schoenmakers ◽  
Eric AP Steegers ◽  
...  

Introduction Preterm birth is the leading cause of child mortality globally, with many survivors experiencing long-term adverse consequences. Preliminary evidence suggests that preterm births dropped dramatically following implementation of policy measures aimed at mitigating the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic. Methods We undertook a national quasi-experimental difference-in-regression-discontinuity approach to study the impact of the COVID-19 mitigation measures implemented in the Netherlands in a stepwise fashion on 9, 15, and 23 March 2020 on the incidence of preterm birth. We used data from the neonatal dried blood spot screening programme (2010-2020) and cross-validated these against national perinatal registry data. Stratified analyses were conducted according to gestational age subgroups, and sensitivity analyses to assess robustness of the findings. We explored potential effect modification by neighbourhood socio-economic status. Results Data on 1,599,549 singleton newborns were available, including 56,720 post-implementation births. Consistent reductions in preterm birth were seen across various time windows surrounding implementation of the 9 March COVID-19 mitigation measures: +/- 2 months (n=531,823): odds ratio 0.77 (95% confidence interval 0.66-0.91), p=0.002; +/- 3 months (n=796,531): 0.85 (0.73-0.98), p=0.028; +/- 4 months (n=1,066,872): 0.84 (0.73-0.97), p=0.023. Decreases observed following the 15 March measures were of smaller magnitude and not statistically significant. No changes were observed after 23 March. Preterm birth reductions after 9 March were consistent across gestational age strata and robust in sensitivity analyses. They appeared confined to high-socioeconomic status neighbourhoods, but effect modification was not statistically significant. Conclusion In this national quasi-experimental study, initial implementation of COVID-19 mitigation measures was associated with a 15-23% drop in preterm births in the following months, in agreement with preliminary observations in other countries. It is now of pivotal importance that integration of comparable data from across the globe is undertaken to further substantiate these findings and start exploring the underlying mechanisms.


2021 ◽  
Vol 18 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Ilaria Izzo ◽  
Canio Carriero ◽  
Giulia Gardini ◽  
Benedetta Fumarola ◽  
Erika Chiari ◽  
...  

Abstract Background Brescia Province, northern Italy, was one of the worst epicenters of the COVID-19 pandemic. The division of infectious diseases of ASST (Azienda Socio Sanitaria Territoriale) Spedali Civili Hospital of Brescia had to face a great number of inpatients with severe COVID-19 infection and to ensure the continuum of care for almost 4000 outpatients with HIV infection actively followed by us. In a recent manuscript we described the impact of the pandemic on continuum of care in our HIV cohort expressed as number of missed visits, number of new HIV diagnosis, drop in ART (antiretroviral therapy) dispensation and number of hospitalized HIV patients due to SARS-CoV-2 infection. In this short communication, we completed the previous article with data of HIV plasmatic viremia of the same cohort before and during pandemic. Methods We considered all HIV-patients in stable ART for at least 6 months and with at least 1 available HIV viremia in the time window March 01–November 30, 2019, and another group of HIV patients with the same two requisites but in different time windows of the COVID-19 period (March 01–May 31, 2020, and June 01–November 30, 2020). For patients with positive viremia (PV) during COVID-19 period, we reported also the values of viral load (VL) just before and after PV. Results: the percentage of patients with PV during COVID-19 period was lower than the previous year (2.8% vs 7%). Only 1% of our outpatients surely suffered from pandemic in term of loss of previous viral suppression. Conclusions Our efforts to limit the impact of pandemic on our HIV outpatients were effective to ensure HIV continuum of care.


2015 ◽  
Vol 31 (4) ◽  
pp. 885-890 ◽  
Author(s):  
Maria Nilza Lima Medeiros ◽  
Nádia Carenina Nunes Cavalcante ◽  
Fabrício José Alencar Mesquita ◽  
Rosângela Lucena Fernandes Batista ◽  
Vanda Maria Ferreira Simões ◽  
...  

The aim of this study was to assess the validity of the last menstrual period (LMP) estimate in determining pre and post-term birth rates, in a prenatal cohort from two Brazilian cities, São Luís and Ribeirão Preto. Pregnant women with a single fetus and less than 20 weeks' gestation by obstetric ultrasonography who received prenatal care in 2010 and 2011 were included. The LMP was obtained on two occasions (at 22-25 weeks gestation and after birth). The sensitivity of LMP obtained prenatally to estimate the preterm birth rate was 65.6% in São Luís and 78.7% in Ribeirão Preto and the positive predictive value was 57.3% in São Luís and 73.3% in Ribeirão Preto. LMP errors in identifying preterm birth were lower in the more developed city, Ribeirão Preto. The sensitivity and positive predictive value of LMP for the estimate of the post-term birth rate was very low and tended to overestimate it. LMP can be used with some errors to identify the preterm birth rate when obstetric ultrasonography is not available, but is not suitable for predicting post-term birth.


BMJ Open ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 10 (12) ◽  
pp. e039303
Author(s):  
Shiwen Jing ◽  
Chang Chen ◽  
Yuexin Gan ◽  
Joshua Vogel ◽  
Jun Zhang

ObjectivesTo update the WHO estimate of preterm birth rate in China in 1990–2016 and to further explore variations by geographic regions and years of occurrence.DesignSystematic review and meta-analysis.Data sourcesPubmed, Embase, Cochrane Library and Sinomed databases were searched from 1990 to 2018.Eligibility criteriaStudies were included if they provided preterm birth data with at least 500 total births. Reviews, case–control studies, intervention studies and studies with insufficient information or published before 1990 were excluded. We estimated pooled incidence of preterm birth by a random effects model, and preterm birth rate in different year, region and by livebirths or all births in subgroup analyses.ResultsOur search identified 3945 records. After the removal of duplicates and screening of titles and abstracts, we reviewed 254 studies in full text and excluded 182, leaving 72 new studies. They were combined with the 82 studies included in the WHO report (154 studies, 187 data sets in total for the meta-analysis), including 24 039 084 births from 1990 to 2016. The pooled incidence of preterm birth in China was 6.09% (95% CI 5.86% to 6.31%) but has been steadily increasing from 5.36% (95% CI 4.89% to 5.84%) in 1990–1994 to 7.04% (95% CI 6.09% to 7.99%) in 2015–2016. The annual rate of increase was about 1.05% (95% CI 0.85% to 1.21%). Northwest China appeared to have the highest preterm birth rate (7.3%, 95% CI 4.92% to 9.68% from 1990 to 2016).ConclusionsThe incidence of preterm birth in China has been rising gradually in the past three decades. It was 7% in 2016. Preterm birth rate varied by region with the West having the highest occurrence.


2018 ◽  
Vol 33 (2) ◽  
pp. 215-219 ◽  
Author(s):  
Junichi Sugawara ◽  
Noriyuki Iwama ◽  
Tetsuro Hoshiai ◽  
Hideki Tokunaga ◽  
Hidekazu Nishigori ◽  
...  

AbstractObjectivesThis study was aimed to analyze post-disaster birth outcomes in coastal and inland regions of Miyagi Prefecture, Japan.MethodsPrimary data sets were compiled from birth records of obstetric facilities and 12,808 patients were analyzed for baseline birth outcomes by region. Regional risk analysis of the low-birth-weight rate and premature birth rate were conducted using multi-level logistic regression analysis.ResultsFrom overall baseline birth outcomes, a preterm birth rate was 4.6% and low-birth-weight rate was 8.8%. Regional analysis revealed that a preterm birth rate was 3.2% (coastal) and 5.0% (inland), respectively, and the rate of low birth weight was 6.5% in the coastal and 8.5% in the inland region. In the risk analysis of low-birth-weight rate and preterm birth rate, the risk in the coastal region could not be considered any higher than in the inland region (adjusted odds ratio 0.91 [0.73-1.14] and 0.85 [0.46-1.59], respectively).ConclusionsThe incidence of preterm birth and low birth weight were not adversely affected by the disaster. Early transfer and intensive medical intervention may have led to those findings. Further survey will be necessary to determine the long-term effects in both mothers and children.SugawaraJ, IwamaN, HoshiaiT, TokunagaH, NishigoriH, MetokiH, OkamuraK, YaegashiN. Regional birth outcomes after the 2011 Great East Japan Earthquake and tsunami in Miyagi Prefecture. Prehosp Disaster Med. 2018;33(2):215–219.


2018 ◽  
Vol 22 (1) ◽  
pp. 12
Author(s):  
Summer Hunt ◽  
Jennifer P. Hellwig

Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document