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..