ORIGINAL RESEARCH article
Front. Public Health
Sec. Children and Health
Volume 13 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/fpubh.2025.1563613
This article is part of the Research TopicPregnancy Complications Forecast Women’s Future HealthView all 9 articles
Analysis on the prevalence and temporal trends of adverse birth outcomes among neonates in Shanghai from 2010 to 2023
Provisionally accepted
- 1Yangpu District Center for Disease Control and Prevenion, Shanghai, China
- 2School of Public Health, School of Medicine, Shanghai Jiao Tong University, Shanghai, China
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Background: Previous research has focused on the risk factors of adverse birth outcomes and its short-term and long-term consequences. However, study on the temporal trends of adverse birth outcomes is few. Furthermore, the population-level correlation between the rate of advanced maternal age (AMA) and the prevalence of adverse birth outcomes remains underexplored. This study aimed to provide the most recent temporal trends of adverse birth outcomes in Shanghai, China, and analyze the correlation between the prevalence of AMA and the prevalence of these adverse birth outcomes.Methods: A total of 173,690 birth data was collected from four regionally influential hospitals in Shanghai from 2010 to 2023. The prevalence of adverse birth outcomes (including preterm birth, low birth weight, small for gestational age, and birth defect) was calculated. Joinpoint regression analysis was conducted to estimate the temporal trends and calculate the Average Annual Percentage Change (AAPC) and Annual Percentage Change (APC) of adverse birth outcomes and AMA. A correlation study design was employed to evaluate the population-level correlation between the prevalence of adverse birth outcomes and AMA.Results: Over the 14-year study period, we identified 13,445 (7.74%) preterm births, 10,226 (5.89%) low birth weight cases, 7,152 (4.12%) small for gestational age infants, and 3,227 (1.86%) birth defects, with significant sex differences across outcomes.The prevalence of PTB (AAPC = 0.87%, P = 0.045), LBW (AAPC = 2.94%, P < 0.001), and SGA (APC = 2.42%, P < 0.001) demonstrated significant upward trends, while BD prevalence (AAPC = 5.73%, P = 0.227) remained relatively stable. The rate of AMA (AAPC=10.14%, P<0.001) rose significantly, showing strong correlations with LBW (r=0.89, P<0.001) and BD (r=0.92, P<0.001), and moderate correlations with PTB (r=0.61, P=0.022) and SGA (r=0.75,P=0.002).Conclusion: The overall prevalence of PTB, LBW, and SGA has shown an increasing trend, aside from BD. AMA also has risen annually and was significantly associated with these adverse birth outcomes. This suggests that enhancing support for advanced-age mothers could potentially mitigate adverse birth outcomes. Besides, gender differences on these adverse birth outcomes demonstrate the implementation of gender-specific healthcare strategies. Key words: Adverse birth outcomes; Temporal trends; Advanced maternal age; Prevalence;Correlation study
Keywords: adverse birth outcomes, Temporal Trends, Advanced maternal age, Prevalence, correlation study
Received: 20 Jan 2025; Accepted: 30 Jun 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 Qin, Zhao, Li, Chen, Dai, Li, Zhang, Sun, Lu and Han. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence: Xue Han, Yangpu District Center for Disease Control and Prevenion, Shanghai, China
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