Preterm birth and mortality and morbidity: a population-based quasi-experimental study.

ABSTRACT:

Importance

Preterm birth is associated with increased mortality and morbidity. However, previous studies have been unable to rigorously examine whether confounding factors cause these associations rather than the harmful effects of being born preterm.

Objective

To estimate the extent to which the associations between early gestational age and offspring mortality and morbidity are the result of confounding factors by using a quasi-experimental design, the sibling-comparison approach, and by controlling for statistical covariates that varied within families.

Design, setting, and participants

A population-based cohort study, combining Swedish registries to identify all individuals born in Sweden from 1973 to 2008 (3,300,708 offspring of 1,736,735 mothers) and link them w

SUBMITTER: D'Onofrio BM 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC3823714 | biostudies-literature | 2013 Nov

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature