Investigating Factors Related to the Occurrence of Premature Infants in the South of Iran: A Population-based Study

Prematurity has been recognized worldwide as the leading cause of death in infants under 4 weeks of age for at least a decade. This study aimed to investigate the factors related to the occurrence of premature infants in the south of Iran in 2020.

In this cross-sectional study, the reporting of premature birth infants was done from the national system of the Ministry of Health (Iman). In the next step, according to the checklist made by the researcher, the information was extracted from the SIB system and completed by a survey of the mothers. Premature infants whose prematurity disorder occurred from March 21, 2019, to March 19, 2020, formed the study cohort. Analyses of the data used SPSS v 20 software, and the statistical significance level was set at <0.05.

In this study, 554 premature infants were examined, and about 55% of them were boys. The residence of the parent’s premature infants was the village (58.5%). The more common factors seen with PTBs were an unwanted pregnancy, hemoglobin less than 11, Body Mass Index (BMI) more than 30, pre-eclampsia, gestational diabetes, opium use in family members, history of cesarean section in previous pregnancies, low family monthly income, low education, and nonprofessional occupations of the mother and father.

Spontaneous premature infants were common in socially vulnerable groups, such as rural residents or people with low education and a poor economic situation. It is emphasized that the reduction of social and health inequalities will likely reduce premature birth rates.