Epidemiology and Prevalence of Preterm Births: A Systematic Review

Abstract

Objective: The aim of this study was to explore dispersion of effect sizes regarding reported preterm births and to find out pooled prevalence estimate of preterm birth using meta-analysis. Methods: For meta-analysis a total of 1106 published studies were initially found related to the preterm births, after careful screening 41methodologically sound studies were selected for meta analysis. Results: In this study 41 published studies were taken with overall sample size of 6781976. Using meta-analysis the overall prevalence of preterm birth was found as 11.3% with significant erogenous results. Rosenthal method showed there exist significant publication bias in pre-term prevalence studies. Conclusions: Based on meta-analysis results it can be evidently concluded that there exists enormous heterogeneity in pre-term prevalence reporting and the overall pooled prevalence is too high. The health care providers must focus on preventive measures and early screening of high-risk pregnancy.