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. 2010;20(6):480-8.
doi: 10.2188/jea.je20100022. Epub 2010 Sep 4.

The effect of an increase in the rate of multiple births on low-birth-weight and preterm deliveries during 1975-2008

Syuichi Ooki  1
Affiliations

The effect of an increase in the rate of multiple births on low-birth-weight and preterm deliveries during 1975-2008

Syuichi Ooki. J Epidemiol. 2010.

Abstract

Background: Despite the rapid increase in the rate of multiple births due to the growth of reproductive medicine, there have been no epidemiologic studies of the secular trends in the impact of multiple births on the rates of low-birth-weight and preterm deliveries in Japan.

Methods: Japanese vital statistics for multiple live births were obtained from the Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare and reanalyzed. With singletons as the reference group, an analysis was performed of secular trends in relative risk and population attributable risk percent of low-birth-weight (<2500 grams), very-low-birth-weight (<1500 grams), and extremely-low-birth-weight (<1000 grams) deliveries, using 1975-2008 vital statistics, and of preterm deliveries (ie, before 37, 32, and 28 weeks), using 1979-2008 vital statistics.

Results: The rate of multiple births doubled during the past 2 decades, and about 2% of all neonates are now multiples. The population attributable risk percent tended to increase during the same period for all variables, and was approximately 20% in 2008.

Conclusions: The public health impact of the rapid increase in multiple births remains high in Japan.

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Figures

Figure 1.
Figure 1.. Secular trends in the numbers of liveborn singletons and multiples and the rate of multiple births
Figure 2.
Figure 2.. Secular trends in low birth weight in multiples and singletons, and in relative risk
Figure 3.
Figure 3.. Secular trends in very low birth weight in multiples and singletons, and in relative risk
Figure 4.
Figure 4.. Secular trends in extremely low birth weight in multiples and singletons, and in relative risk
Figure 5.
Figure 5.. Secular trends in preterm delivery before 37 weeks in multiples and singletons, and in relative risk
Figure 6.
Figure 6.. Secular trends of preterm delivery before 32 weeks in multiples and singletons, and in relative risk
Figure 7.
Figure 7.. Secular trends in preterm delivery before 28 weeks in multiples and singletons, and in relative risk
Figure 8.
Figure 8.. Secular trends in population attributable risk% of 3 low-birth-weight categories among multiple births
Figure 9.
Figure 9.. Secular trends in population attributable risk% of preterm delivery before 37, 32, and 28 weeks among multiple births
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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