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Human Reproduction, Vol. 15, No. 4, 973-975, April 2000
© 2000 European Society of Human Reproduction and Embryology

Letters to the editor

The causes of preterm birth

W.H. James

The Galton Laboratory, University College London, Wolfson House, 4 Stephenson Way, London NW1 2HE, UK

Dear Sir,

Astolfi and Zonta (1999) analysed the data on 2.8 million births by duration of gestation from last menstrual period (LMP), birth order, maternal age, maternal education and sex. Univariate analysis showed that the risk of preterm birth varied significantly with each of these latter four variables: higher risks were associated with first births, elderly mothers, poorly educated mothers, and male infants. Logistic regression analysis suggested that though all four of these risk factors remained significant, maternal age was the strongest, and infant sex the weakest of them.

I want here to consider the effect of two sorts of error to which such data are susceptible: firstly, the error of misreporting LMP, and secondly, the error involved in using LMP as a surrogate for the initiation of pregnancy (i.e. conception).

Error A

Milner and Richards (1974) analysed the birthweights of infants by reported gestational duration and sex. They noted that the . . . [Full Text of this Article]

Error B

References

Paola Astolfi and Laura A. Zonta

Dept. of Genetics and Microbiology, Via Abbiategrasso 207, 27100 Pavia, Italy


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