Abstract
Objective: The aim of this study was to explore dispersion of effect sizes regarding reported preterm births and to find out pooled prevalence estimate of preterm birth using meta-analysis.
 Methods: For meta-analysis a total of 1106 published studies were initially found related to the preterm births, after careful screening 41methodologically sound studies were selected for meta analysis.
 Results: In this study 41 published studies were taken with overall sample size of 6781976. Using meta-analysis the overall prevalence of preterm birth was found as 11.3% with significant erogenous results. Rosenthal method showed there exist significant publication bias in pre-term prevalence studies.
 Conclusions: Based on meta-analysis results it can be evidently concluded that there exists enormous heterogeneity in pre-term prevalence reporting and the overall pooled prevalence is too high. The health care providers must focus on preventive measures and early screening of high-risk pregnancy.
Highlights
All births within 21 days before and 14 days after 40 weeks are defined as “term” births and have the best short and long-term health outcomes and as opposed to term birth, preterm birth (PTB) defined as childbirth occurring at less than 37 completed weeks or 259 days of gestation [1]
Using meta-analysis the overall prevalence of preterm birth was found as 12.5%.Enormous heterogeneity is observed in prevalence rates based on I-squared statistics and Cochran's Q
According to given prevalence in different studies we observe no consistency in reported prevalence of preterm birth worldwide, as the lowest and highest prevalence of PTB in recent literature is reported as 1.52% [6] and 41.5% [7] respectively
Summary
All births within 21 days before and 14 days after 40 weeks are defined as “term” births and have the best short and long-term health outcomes and as opposed to term birth, preterm birth (PTB) defined as childbirth occurring at less than 37 completed weeks or 259 days of gestation [1]. The prevalence of medically indicated or iatrogenic preterm birth is 25% [2]. Across 184 countries, the rate of preterm birth ranges from 5% to 18% of new born babies [3]. Almost 15 million infants are born preterm every year in all over the world. While more than 60% of preterm births occur in Sub-Saharan Africa and South Asia in some of the developed countries such as the United States of America [4]. The occurrence of preterm births rose steadily from 9.4% of all pregnancies in the developed countries in 1981 to 12.8% in 2006, before declining to 12.7% in 2007 and 12.3% in 2008 [5]. Despite of much work done in past and being done currently, no consistency can yet be established regarding prevalence of preterm birth worldwide, as the range of the preterm birth prevalence has been reported to be as low as 1.52% [6] to as high as 41.5% [7]
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