ArticleInternational journal of environmental research and public health2022
A Scoping Review of Preterm Births in Sub-Saharan Africa: Burden, Risk Factors and Outcomes.
Article in International journal of environmental research and public health, 2022. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 24 papers, 1 of them a synthesis that pooled it.
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The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
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Who cites it
24 citing papers in PubMed, 1 synthesis or guideline pooled it, 23 citations in OpenAlex.
- Malaria in pregnancy: Meta-analyses of prevalence and associated complications.Epidemiology and infection · 2024Pooled it
- Prenatal exposure to HIV pre-exposure prophylaxis and birth, growth, and social-emotional developmental outcomes throughout early childhood in Kenya: a prospective cohort study.The Lancet. Global health · 2025Trial
- Sex-stratified mortality trends in preterm birth complications in Sierra Leone: progress, persistence, and equity implications.Global health action · 2026Article
- Incidence and Clinical Outcomes of Premature Infants: 1-Year Retrospective Study at the NICU of Gadarif Teaching Hospital.Health science reports · 2026Article
- Vaginal Pathogenic Bacterial Colonization and Adverse Birth Outcomes among Pregnant Women Living with and without HIV in Tanzania.Research square · 2026Article
- Parents' Adaptation Process in Providing Care to Preterm Neonates in the Neonatal Intensive Care Units in Rwanda: A qualitative study.Rwanda journal of medicine and health sciences · 2026Article
- Article
- Preterm Neonatal Mortality and Its Associated Factors in Ethiopia: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis.Health science reports · 2026Review
- Prevalence and determinants of preterm birth at University Teaching Hospital of Kigali: a retrospective study.BMC pregnancy and childbirth · 2026Article
- Bacterial vaginosis in early pregnancy and birth outcomes: Evidence from a prospective cohort in the middle belt of Ghana.PloS one · 2026Article
- Article
- Preterm birth and its associated factors among women of reproductive age in Zambia: a survey analysis.BMC pregnancy and childbirth · 2025Article
- Article
- Incidence and predictors of adverse birth outcomes among women who gave birth at Assosa general hospital, Northwest Ethiopia: a retrospective cohort study.BMC pregnancy and childbirth · 2025Article
- Active vaccine safety surveillance: Experience from a prospective cohort event monitoring study of COVID-19 vaccines in Kenya.PLOS global public health · 2025Article
- Incidence, risk factors and outcomes of preterm live births in a tertiary health facility in Ghana.PloS one · 2025Article
- Women's experiences with continuity for effective coordination during maternal and neonatal continuum in Kenya: An interpretive phenomenology.African journal of primary health care & family medicine · 2024Article
- Folate deficiency in pregnancy and the risk of preterm birth: A nested case-control study.Journal of global health · 2024Article
- The General Movement Optimality Score-Revised (GMOS-R) with Socioeconomically Stratified Percentile Ranks.Journal of clinical medicine · 2024Article
- Neutrophil Elastase as a Predictor of Delivery in Pregnant Women with Preterm Labour.Exploratory research and hypothesis in medicine · 2024Article
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
5 authors at 4 institutions in 3 countries.
Funding
Abstract
Preterm births (PTB) are the leading cause of neonatal deaths, the majority of which occur in low- and middle-income countries, particularly those in Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA). Understanding the epidemiology of prematurity is an essential step towards tackling the challenge of PTB in the sub-continent. We performed a scoping review of the burden, predictors and outcomes of PTB in SSA. We searched PubMed, Embase, and three other databases for articles published from the database inception to 10 July 2021. Studies reporting the prevalence of PTB, the associated risk factors, and/or its outcomes were eligible for inclusion in this review. Our literature search identified 4441 publications, but only 181 met the inclusion criteria. Last menstrual period (LMP) was the most commonly used method of estimating gestational age. The prevalence of PTB in SSA ranged from 3.4% to 49.4%. Several risk factors of PTB were identified in this review. The most frequently reported risk factors (i.e., reported in ≥10 studies) were previous history of PTB, underutilization of antenatal care (<4 visits), premature rupture of membrane, maternal age (≤20 or ≥35 years), inter-pregnancy interval, malaria, HIV and hypertension in pregnancy. Premature babies had high rates of hospital admissions, were at risk of poor growth and development, and were also at a high risk of morbidity and mortality. There is a high burden of PTB in SSA. The true burden of PTB is underestimated due to the widespread use of LMP, an unreliable and often inaccurate method for estimating gestational age. The associated risk factors for PTB are mostly modifiable and require an all-inclusive intervention to reduce the burden and improve outcomes in SSA.
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Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the Socratic graph.