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Meta-Analysis
. 2023 Oct;51(10):3000605231203843.
doi: 10.1177/03000605231203843.

Prevalence of preterm birth in Scandinavian countries: a systematic review and meta-analysis

Samira Behboudi-Gandevani  1 , Razieh Bidhendi-Yarandi  2 , Mohammad Hossein Panahi  3 , Abbas Mardani  4 , Christina Prinds  5 , Mojtaba Vaismoradi  1   6 , Manela Glarcher  7
Affiliations
Meta-Analysis

Prevalence of preterm birth in Scandinavian countries: a systematic review and meta-analysis

Samira Behboudi-Gandevani et al. J Int Med Res. 2023 Oct.

Abstract

Objectives: As welfare societies, Scandinavian countries share characteristics of equality related to healthcare access, gender, and social services. However, cultural and lifestyle variations create country-specific health differences. This meta-analysis assessed the prevalence of preterm birth (PTB) and its categories in Scandinavian countries.

Methods: A systematic search in key databases of literature published between 1990 and 2021 identified studies of the prevalence of PTB and its categories. Following the use of the Freeman-Tukey double arcsine transformation, a meta-analysis of weighted data was performed using the random-effects model and meta-prop method.

Results: We identified 109 observational studies that involved 86,420,188 live births. The overall pooled prevalence (PP) of PTB was 5.3% (PP = 5.3%, 95% confidence interval [CI] 5.1%, 5.5%). The highest prevalence was in Norway (PP = 6.2%, 95% CI 5.3%, 7.0%), followed by Sweden (PP = 5.3%, 95% CI 5.1%, 5.4%), Denmark (PP = 5.2%, 95% CI 4.9%, 5.3%), and Iceland (PP = 5.0%, 95% CI 4.4%, 5.7%). Finland had the lowest PTB rate (PP = 4.9%, 95% CI 4.7%, 5.1%).

Conclusions: The overall PP of PTB was 5.3%, with small variations among countries (4.9%-6.2%). The highest and lowest PPs of PTB were in Norway and Finland, respectively.

Keywords: Preterm birth; Scandinavian country; extremely preterm birth; moderate/late preterm birth; prevalence; systematic review; very preterm birth.

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Conflict of interest statement

Declaration of conflicting interestsThe authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper.

Figures

Figure 1.
Figure 1.
Flow diagram of the search strategy and study selection.
Figure 2.
Figure 2.
The prevalence of preterm birth (PTB) and its categories in Scandinavian countries.
Figure 3.
Figure 3.
Forest plot of pooled prevalence of preterm birth in each Scandinavian country (a. Norway, b. Sweden, c. Finland, d. Denmark, and e. Iceland).
Figure 3.
Figure 3.
Forest plot of pooled prevalence of preterm birth in each Scandinavian country (a. Norway, b. Sweden, c. Finland, d. Denmark, and e. Iceland).
Figure 3.
Figure 3.
Forest plot of pooled prevalence of preterm birth in each Scandinavian country (a. Norway, b. Sweden, c. Finland, d. Denmark, and e. Iceland).
Figure 4.
Figure 4.
Forest plot of pooled prevalence of moderate/late preterm birth in each Scandinavian country.
Figure 5.
Figure 5.
Forest plot of pooled prevalence of very preterm birth in each Scandinavian country.
Figure 6.
Figure 6.
Forest plot of pooled prevalence of extremely preterm birth in each Scandinavian country.
Figure 7.
Figure 7.
Funnel plot for the assessment of publication bias: a. Total preterm birth, b. Moderate/late preterm birth, c. Very preterm birth, and d. Extremely preterm birth.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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