Premature baby rate falls in just three countries
Friday June 8th, 2012
The numbers of premature babies born is rising worldwide - and has fallen in only three countries over the past 20 years, researchers say today.
In
the first national level estimates and time series published in the Lancet,
it is revealed that almost 15 million babies were born prematurely –
before 37 weeks – in 2010 – more than one in ten of all births.
Sixty per cent of premature babies were born in south Asia and sub-Saharan Africa, but the USA and Brazil also ranked in the top ten countries with the highest number of premature births in 2010, with 517,000 and 279,300 preterm births respectively.
Only Croatia, Ecuador, and Estonia saw a decrease in the number of preterm births between 1990 and 2010.
Joy Lawn from Save the Children in South Africa, who led the team that produced the estimates for the World Health Organisation, published in the report Born Too Soon, said the figures highlight “a fact that has received little attention”.
“Most European countries have about half the preterm birth rate of the USA, but whilst the US rate has levelled off, European rates, even in Scandinavian countries, are increasing,” she said.
Preterm birth remains the single biggest cause of neonatal death worldwide and is the second most common cause of death in children under five, responsible for 1.1 million deaths every year.
Lawn and colleagues collected data for 184 countries from a number of sources, including National Registries and Reproductive Health Surveys, and used statistical modelling to assess the data to estimate preterm birth rates for 2010 by country, region, and globally.
They also calculated time trends since 1990 for 65 countries which had reliable data in developed regions, Latin America, and the Caribbean.
Numbers of premature births increased in most of the 65 countries and only decreased in Croatia, Ecuador, and Estonia between 1990 and 2010. In 14 other countries the rate remained stable – less than 0.5 per cent annual change.
The average rate in the 65 countries increased from 7.5 per cent in 1990, with two million premature births, to 8.6 per cent in 2010 – 2.2 million. Among European countries, Cyprus had the highest average increase in rates per year since 1990 at 2.8 per cent and Slovenia stood at 2.6 per cent.
“The countries with the fastest increases include many European countries, and in many cases the reasons are not clear although the effects on families and the health system are very apparent,” say the authors. “Urgent attention is needed to better understand and reduce these rates of preterm birth.”
Tags: Africa | Asia | Childbirth and Pregnancy | Europe | North America | Women’s Health & Gynaecology | World Health
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