Prenatal care and prevention of preterm birth

✍ Scribed by Montserrat Gómez-Olmedo; Miguel Delgado-Rodriguez; Aurora Bueno-Cavanillas; Juan Antonio Molina-Font; Ramón Gálvez-Vargas

• Book ID: 104640714
• Publisher: Springer
• Year: 1996
• Tongue: English
• Weight: 772 KB
• Volume: 12
• Category: Article
• ISSN: 0393-2990
• DOI: 10.1007/bf00144426

✦ Synopsis

The value of prenatal care is controversial and difficult to establish. A national policy for improving perinatal outcomes was proposed and applied throughout Andalusia (Southern Spain) in 1984. Here we report the results of an evaluation of this health care program as regards the prevention of preterm delivery. Effectiveness of prenatal care was assessed on the basis of two case-control studies in a hospital setting: one performed before the program was implemented (1981)(1982) and the second one six years after the program began (1990)(1991)(1992)(1993). A total of 229 cases and 395 controls for the period 1981-1982, and 207 cases and 381 controls for 1990-t993 were selected. Prenatal care was assessed based on the number of prenatal care visits, the date of the first visit, and an American composite index adjusting for gestational age. Multiple-factor adjusted odds ratios and their 95% confidence intervals (CI) were estimated using unconditional logistic regression analysis. The use of prenatal care significantly improved across time: the