Tests and treatments for spontaneous pre-term birth assessed

News release from NETSCC, HTA

13 October 2009

Newly published research by the National Institute for Health Research Health Technology Assessment (NIHR HTA) programme has found that currently available tests to identify mothers at risk of spontaneous pre-term birth are of limited use

Spontaneous pre-term birth occurs in one in ten pregnancies and is associated with substantial use of healthcare resources. Clinical decisions about when to start effective treatment to prevent premature birth require timely and accurate diagnosis of pre-term labour pains. However, there is considerable variation in testing strategies to predict the onset of pre-term labour, and conflicting evidence on how to effectively look after such patients.

“It is often thought that if women can be identified as at high risk in early pregnancy, they can be targeted for more intensive antenatal surveillance and interventions can be deployed to prevent or delay birth and improve subsequent neonatal mortality/morbidity,” says lead researcher Professor Khalid Khan of the University of Birmingham.
Researchers reviewed existing literature on 40 different interventions for predicting and preventing spontaneous pre-term birth to find out: how accurate available tests are at identifying asymptomatic antenatal women in early pregnancy and those in later pregnancy who may be at risk; how effective various interventions are potentially reducing premature labour; and the cost-effectiveness of these.

The research teams finding showed that the accuracy of current tests was poor. However, evidence did show that for a woman with symptoms of threatened preterm labour, the most cost-effective test for postponing delivery by at least 48 hours and by at least seven days was the cervical length measurement test with treatment for all those tested positive.

“Spontaneous pre-term birth is an important public health issue world-wide and is associated with a significant risk of disease and death in the newborn baby,” says Professor Khan. “Our research has found that current tests used to identify mothers at risk are poor and better tests are needed. High quality trials are required to investigate which treatments are most effective in reducing or delaying spontaneous pre-term birth.”
To view or download the full results visit www.hta.ac.uk/1486

Notes for editors

 1. The National Institute for Health Research Health Technology Assessment (NIHR HTA) programme commissions research about the effectiveness, costs, and broader impact of health technologies for those who use, manage and provide care in the NHS. It is the largest NIHR programme and publishes the results of its research in the Health Technology Assessment journal, with over 530 issues published to date. The journal’s 2009 Impact Factor (4.197) ranked it in the top 10% of medical and health-related journals. All issues are available for download free of charge from the website, www.hta.ac.uk

2. The National Institute for Health Research provides the framework through which the research staff and research infrastructure of the NHS in England is positioned, maintained and managed as a national research facility. The NIHR provides the NHS with the support and infrastructure it needs to conduct first-class research funded by the Government and its partners alongside high-quality patient care, education and training. Its aim is to support outstanding individuals (both leaders and collaborators), working in world class facilities (both NHS and university), conducting leading edge research focused on the needs of patients. www.nihr.ac.uk

Contact details

Naomi Williams, Programme Manager (Communications)
Telephone: 02380 595 646, Email: N.E.Williams@southampton.ac.uk

Emma Sunderland, Assistant Programme Manager (Communications)
Telephone: 02380 599 094, Email: E.Sunderland@southampton.ac.uk

Advanced search How to use the search function