Hi ab64,
Here you go, I've tried my best to find exactly what you are looking
for, I hope you find my research satisfactory (please click on the
links for more details).
NUMBERS
(number of babies delivered prematurely each year)
Statistics by Country for Premature Birth
USA...........475,030
Canada.........52,586
UK.............97,496
Denmark.........8,756
Finland.........8,435
France.........97,745
Germany.......133,333
Italy..........93,916
Netherlands....26,397
Spain..........65,160
Sweden.........14,536
[click on link for more countries]
http://www.wrongdiagnosis.com/p/premature_birth/stats-country.htm
United States:
2002: Number of preterm births: 480,812
http://www.cdc.gov/nchs/fastats/birthwt.htm
Table 43. Live births by birthweight and percent very low and low
birthweight, by period of gestation and race and
Hispanic origin of mother: United States, 2002
http://pdftohtml.logicx.net/pdf2html.php?url=http://www.cdc.gov/nchs/fastats/pdf/nvsr52_10t43.pdf&ID=78380
COSTS
(average cost per day of neonatal intensive care for these babies)
United States: $2000 per day
Given that most premature infants must be hospitalized in neonatal
intensive care units (NICUs), which cost an average of $2,000 a
day,..."
http://www.matria.com/resources/clinical/wh/materna_summary.html
United Kingdom:
National average cost per unit per day (£)
Neonatal intensive care unit-level 1 838 £ (1,505 US)
Neonatal intensive care unit-level 2 560 £ (1,006 US)
http://www.parliament.the-stationery-office.co.uk/pa/cm200506/cmhansrd/cm050615/text/50615w38.htm
Australia: $1200 per day (906.47 US)
"The neonatal intensive care unit's smallest surviving patient
weighted a tiny 500 grams. The youngest patient so far had only 23
weeks gestation. Neonatal intensive care for each baby costs about
$1,200 per day."
http://www.parliament.nsw.gov.au/prod/parlment/hansart.nsf/V3Key/LA20040914022
AGE
(average number of days early)
The average gestational age is 40 weeks (280 days).
The majority of preterms are born between 224 and 252 days (56 - 28 days early).
Most pregnancies last around 40 weeks. Babies born between 37 and 42
weeks of pregnancy are called full term. Babies born before 37
completed weeks of pregnancy are called premature or preterm. About 12
percent of babies in the United States are born preterm. Of those, the
majority (84 percent) are born between 32 and 36 weeks of gestation.
About 10 percent are born between 28 and 31 weeks of gestation, and
about 6 percent are born at less than 28 weeks of gestation.
http://www.marchofdimes.com/professionals/681_1157.asp
ab64, I have searched high and low for the average gestational age and
I believe the above figures are the best we are going to find. Given
that "full term" and "preterm" is the same all over the world (it's
biological), the figures shouldn't be that far off for other
countries. In other words, I think the majority of preemies are going
to be born between 56 and 28 days early, no matter where you live.
Additional Link of Interest
United States
A few years ago, most NICU infants were between 30 and 36 weeks
gestational age. Now they're 25 to 30 weeks."
http://www.dekalbmedicalcenter.org/healthlines/tinybabies.asp
The Big Picture: Hospital Costs
On average, hospital charges for newborns without complications run
$1,500, while those for hospital stays for infants with a principal
diagnosis of prematurity average a startling $79,000. In 2002,
hospital charges for all infants totaled $33.8 billion. Nearly half of
that-$15.5 billion-was for babies with any diagnosis of prematurity.
That means that nearly 50 percent of the total charges for infant
hospital stays in 2002 were for babies who were born too soon or too
small.
http://www.marchofdimes.com/prematurity/15341_10734.asp
METHODS: A data set linking birth certificates with maternal and
newborn hospital discharge records from hospitals in California (from
January 1, 1996, to December 31, 1996) was examined for all singleton
deliveries by gestational age (weekly, from 25 to 38 weeks) and birth
weight (by 250-g increments from 500 to 3000 or more g). Records were
examined for respiratory distress syndrome (RDS), use of mechanical
ventilation, length of hospital stay in days, and hospital costs.
RESULTS: As expected, RDS, ventilation, length of hospital stay, and
costs per case decreased exponentially with increasing gestational age
and birth weight. Specifically, neonatal hospital costs averaged
$202,700 for a delivery at 25 weeks, decreasing to $2600 for a 36-week
newborn and $1100 for a 38-week newborn. Neonatal costs were $224,400
for a newborn at 500-700 g, decreasing to $4300 for a newborn at
2250-2500 g and $1000 for a birth weight greater than 3000 g. For each
gestational age group from 25 to 36 weeks, total neonatal costs were
similar, despite increasing case numbers with advancing gestational
age. Neonatal RDS and need for ventilation were significant at 7.4%
and 6.3%, respectively, at 34 weeks? gestation. Significant "excess"
costs were found for births between 34 and 37 weeks? gestational age
when compared with births at 38 weeks.
http://www.greenjournal.org/cgi/content/abstract/102/3/488
"The median treatment cost of delivery for very low birthweight
infants (<1500 grams) is almost $50,000, ranging from $32,000 for
infants weighing 1251-1500 grams to almost $90,000 for infants 501-750
grams. This is more than $1,000 per day, with a median length of stay
of 49 days (Rogowski, 1999)."
http://www.marchofdimes.com/aboutus/680_2203.asp
Measuring the Cost of Neonatal and Perinatal Care 1999
http://pediatrics.aappublications.org/cgi/content/full/103/1/SE1/329
THE COSTS OF LOW BIRTH WEIGHT
http://emlab.berkeley.edu/users/dslee/wp/qje_bw_final.pdf
THE COST OF NEONATAL CARE
Median total costs for infants with birth weights ranging from 501 to
750 grams were estimated at $89,546 (in 1994 dollars). When related to
gestational age, median costs rose by $10,000 for every week under the
gestational age of 31 weeks.
http://www.hopkinscme.org/ofp/eneonatalreview/pdfs/eNeonatal_aug04.pdf
Table IV: Piece-wise Linear Spline Estimates of the Effect of Birth
Weight on Hospital Costs and Infant Health
http://emlab.berkeley.edu/users/dslee/wp/qje_bw_final.pdf
There you have it. If you have any questions or if this doesn't meet
your needs, please post a clarification request and wait for me to
respond before closing/rating my answer.
Thank you,
hummer
I used many combinations of the following search terms at various
websites and Google:
national average gestational age premature preterm uk neonatal
statistics mean number of days early prematurity u.s. nicu infants
costs preemie gestation daily annual country countries world figures
stats national health babies |
