ATLANTA – A third of infant deaths are due to premature births, scientists now say, a much larger percentage than previously thought.
Earlier data obtained solely from death certificates had indicated that birth defects were the major cause of death among infants in their first year. But linking death certificates with birth certificates, which include gestational age, shows that birth before 37 weeks of gestation plays the dominant role, according to the study.
Prematurity is the direct cause of death for half those who die in the first month of life and 95 percent of those who are delivered before the 32nd week of pregnancy, according to the report.
In the past, “preterm birth” has been the listed cause of death in fewer than 20 percent of newborn fatalities. But that number should be 34 percent or more, said researchers at the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
That’s because at least a dozen causes of newborn death are actually problems that go hand-in-hand with premature births, such as respiratory distress syndrome caused by underdeveloped lungs.
“This brings preterm birth, as a cause of death, to the kind of level that we think it deserves,” said the CDC’s Dr. Bill Callaghan, the lead author of a study appearing today in the journal Pediatrics.
Callaghan and other researchers examined birth and death certificates for more than 22,000 U.S. infants that died in 2002.
More than 4,300 of those – or 17 percent – were attributed only to preterm birth. But the researchers also grouped in more than 5,000 other deaths that were attributed to preterm-related conditions including respiratory distress syndrome, brain hemorrhage and maternal complications such as premature rupture of membranes.
In that counting, nearly 9,600 births – or 34 percent – could be classified as preterm, Callaghan said. The researchers believe that figure is conservative and likely underestimates the true picture.
Talk to us
> Give us your news tips.
> Send us a letter to the editor.
> More Herald contact information.
