Premature Birth Is Cause of Many Infant Deaths

A new study finds that preterm birth is the leading cause of infant mortality in the United States, accounting for at least a third of all babies' deaths in 2002.

Researchers from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC, Atlanta, GA, USA) identified the top 20 leading causes of death in infants--less than one year of age--in 2002 using the U.S.-linked birth/infant death data set. They assessed the contribution of preterm birth to each cause by determining the proportion of infants who were born preterm for each cause of death, and by considering the biologic connection between preterm birth and the specific cause of death. Of the 27,970 recorded deaths in the linked file for 2002, the 20 leading causes accounted for 22,273 deaths, or 80% of all infant deaths. Deaths of preterm infants in the top 20 categories totaled 9,596 (34.3%), 95% of whom were born before 32 weeks gestational age and weighed less than 1,500 g. Two-thirds of the deaths in preterm infants occurred in the first 24 hours of life.

The top five causes of death overall were found to be congenital malformations, deformations, and chromosomal abnormalities; disorders related to short gestation and low birth weight, not elsewhere classified; sudden infant death syndrome; newborns affected by maternal complications of pregnancy; and newborns affected by complications of placenta, cord, and membranes. Deaths most likely to occur within 24 hours of birth were those attributable to short gestation/low birth weight, atelectasis (a collapse of part or all of the lung), maternal complications, and cord and placental complications. The findings were published in the October 2006 issue of Pediatrics.

"Efforts to prevent infant deaths attributable to preterm birth require safely delaying birth until a later gestational age, when survival is more likely,” concluded William M. Callaghan, M.D., M.P.H., and colleagues. "Therefore, there is an urgent need for an expanded comprehensive agenda to understand the complex social and biological factors that determine susceptibility to preterm birth, to detect women at risk early in pregnancy, and to develop and to evaluate new methods for preventing this important cause of infant death.”



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Centers for Disease Control and Prevention