Incidence and trend of preterm birth in China, 1990-2016: A systematic review and meta-analysis

Abstract

Objectives To update the WHO estimate of preterm birth rate in China in 1990-2016 and to further explore variations by geographic regions and years of occurrence. Design Systematic review and meta-analysis. Data sources Pubmed, Embase, Cochrane Library and Sinomed databases were searched from 1990 to 2018. Eligibility criteria Studies were included if they provided preterm birth data with at least 500 total births. Reviews, case-control studies, intervention studies and studies with insufficient information or published before 1990 were excluded. We estimated pooled incidence of preterm birth by a random effects model, and preterm birth rate in different year, region and by livebirths or all..