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Gestational age-specific risk of stillbirth during term pregnancy according to maternal age

  • Maternal-Fetal Medicine
  • Published:
Archives of Gynecology and Obstetrics Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

Purpose

To investigate the gestational age-specific risk of stillbirth according to the maternal age group particularly regarding stillbirth risk at the end of pregnancy.

Methods

This study was a retrospective national cohort study of all singleton term pregnancy using the Korean Vital Statistics database (n = 2,798,542). We evaluated the risk of stillbirth by gestational week in mothers aged 20–49 years according to maternal age group and neonatal birth weight.

Results

The risk of stillbirth in women aged 41 years and older was significantly higher than in women aged 20–29 years between 37 and 40 weeks’ gestation. The stillbirth rate per 10,000 ongoing pregnancy in women aged 37–38 years at 39 weeks’ gestation (4.22, 95% confidence intervals [CI] 3.01–5.90) and that in women aged 39–40 years at 40 weeks’ gestation (8.15, 95% CI 4.83–13.77) were significantly higher in comparison with in those aged 20–29 years at 39 weeks’ gestation (1.95, 95% CI 1.64–2.33) and at 40 weeks’ gestation (2.59, 95% CI 2.1–3,18). The risk of stillbirth showed an increasing pattern at 40 gestational weeks, in women aged 39 years and older.

Conclusions

Delivery plan need to be set up and supported to decrease rates of stillbirth at term in women aged 35 years and older with other risk factors and in women aged 37 years and older regardless of risk factors, and especially in women older than 40 years of age.

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Acknowledgements

The authors wish to acknowledge the technical support of DH, Kim for statistics.

Funding

No external funding was received for this study.

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology, Seoul St. Mary’s Hospital, College of Medicine, The Catholic University of Korea, 222, Banpo-daero, Seocho-gu, Seoul, 06591, Republic of Korea

    Jeong Ha Wie, Seong Eun Pak, Ra Yon Kim, Yoo Hyun Chung, In Yang Park, Jong Shul Shin & Hyun Sun Ko

  2. Department of Biostatistics College of Medicine, The Catholic University of Korea, Seoul, Republic of Korea

    Yong Gyu Park

Authors
  1. Jeong Ha Wie
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  2. Seong Eun Pak
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  3. Ra Yon Kim
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  4. Yoo Hyun Chung
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  5. In Yang Park
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  6. Yong Gyu Park
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  7. Jong Shul Shin
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  8. Hyun Sun Ko
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Contributions

HSK designed the study and participated in acquisition and interpretation of data. JHW was the first author and participated in drafting of manuscript. HSK is the corresponding author. YGP participated in statistical analysis. SEP, RYK, YHC participated in data acquisition. IYP and JCS were participated in supervision and methodology. All authors have read and approved the final manuscript.

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Hyun Sun Ko.

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Conflict of interest

All authors have no conflict of interest related with this article.

Ethical approval

We obtained approval from the institutional review board of Catholic University of Korea (KC17ZESI0171).

Availability of data and materials

All data supporting the conclusion of the article are available from the corresponding author on reasonable request.

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Wie, J.H., Pak, S.E., Kim, R.Y. et al. Gestational age-specific risk of stillbirth during term pregnancy according to maternal age. Arch Gynecol Obstet 299, 681–688 (2019). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00404-018-5022-z

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00404-018-5022-z

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