Related Experiment Video

Updated: Jul 12, 2026

Measuring Cardiac Autonomic Nervous System ANS Activity in Children
09:45

Measuring Cardiac Autonomic Nervous System ANS Activity in Children

Published on: April 29, 2013

21.6K

Geographic variation in spontaneous preterm birth incidence at the province and municipal level in the Netherlands: A

T E Dijkhuis1, M A van Os1, J V Been2

  • 1Department of Obstetrics and Gynaecology, UMC Groningen, Groningen, the Netherlands.

European Journal of Obstetrics, Gynecology, and Reproductive Biology
|March 19, 2026
PubMed

Insights

Spontaneous preterm birth (sPTB) rates vary significantly across Dutch regions. Socioeconomic status and late antenatal care partially explain these disparities, but other local factors likely play a role.

Area of Science:

  • Perinatal epidemiology
  • Public health research
  • Socioeconomic determinants of health

Background:

  • Preterm birth (PTB) is a critical public health issue with lasting consequences.
  • Spontaneous preterm birth (sPTB) is influenced by various factors, including socioeconomic status (SES) and antenatal care (ANC) initiation.
  • Regional variations in sPTB and the impact of SES and ANC at the municipal level are not well understood.

Purpose of the Study:

  • To investigate the geographic distribution of sPTB in the Netherlands.
  • To assess the contribution of SES and late ANC to regional sPTB disparities.
  • To inform targeted, place-based interventions for improving perinatal health outcomes.

Main Methods:

  • Analysis of 952,262 singleton pregnancies from the Netherlands Perinatal Registry (PERINED) (2016-2021).
  • Calculation of sPTB incidence rates per province and municipality.
  • Logistic regression analysis to determine crude and adjusted odds ratios for sPTB, controlling for SES, late ANC, parity, maternal age, ethnicity, fetal sex, and urbanisation.

Main Results:

  • The overall sPTB incidence was 3.6%, with significant geographic variation (2.1%-6.6%).
  • Regional sPTB disparities were partly associated with SES and late ANC initiation, but persisted after adjustments.
  • Further adjustment for urbanisation attenuated regional differences, suggesting its influence.

Conclusions:

  • Marked geographic disparities in sPTB exist in the Netherlands, not fully explained by SES or late ANC.
  • Urbanisation level plays a role in these regional differences.
  • Further research into local environmental and contextual factors is essential for developing effective, targeted interventions.

Keywords:
Antenatal careDiversityEthnicityMaternal healthPreterm birthSocial disadvantage

More Related Videos

Transcutaneous Microcirculatory Imaging in Preterm Neonates06:27

Transcutaneous Microcirculatory Imaging in Preterm Neonates

Published on: December 31, 2015

8.6K
Modeling Ascending Vaginal Infection, Preterm Birth, and Neonatal Morbidity in Mice04:18

Modeling Ascending Vaginal Infection, Preterm Birth, and Neonatal Morbidity in Mice

Published on: October 10, 2025

647

Related Concept Videos

Regression Toward the Mean01:52

Regression Toward the Mean

Regression toward the mean (“RTM”) is a phenomenon in which extremely high or low values—for example, and individual’s blood pressure at a particular moment—appear closer to a group’s average upon remeasuring. Although this statistical peculiarity is the result of random error and chance, it has been problematic across various medical, scientific, financial and psychological applications. In particular, RTM, if not taken into account, can interfere when researchers try to extrapolate results...
Sampling Distribution01:12

Sampling Distribution

Given simple random samples of size n from a given population with a measured characteristic such as mean, proportion, or standard deviation for each sample, the probability distribution of all the measured characteristics is called a sampling distribution. How much the statistic varies from one sample to another is known as the sampling variability of a statistic. You typically measure the sampling variability of a statistic by its standard error. The standard error of the mean is an example...
Testing a Claim about Mean: Known Population SD01:11

Testing a Claim about Mean: Known Population SD

A complete procedure of testing the hypothesis about a population mean is explained here.
Estimating a population mean requires the samples to be distributed normally. The data should be collected from the randomly selected samples having no sampling bias. The sample size needed to be higher than 30, and most importantly, the population standard deviation should be already known.
In most realistic situations, the population standard deviation is often unknown, but in rare circumstances, when it...
Prevalence and Incidence01:08

Prevalence and Incidence

In statistical epidemiology and health sciences, two essential metrics—prevalence and incidence—are fundamental for understanding disease dynamics within a population. These measures enable public health officials, epidemiologists, and researchers to assess the burden of diseases, allocate resources effectively, and design impactful public health policies and interventions.
Prevalence indicates the proportion of individuals in a population who have a specific disease or health condition at a...