Asdis Bjork Gunnarsdottir¹

Thordur Thorkelsson²

Ragnheidur I. Bjarnadottir^1,3

Embla Yr Gudmundsdottir^4,5

¹Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology, Landspítali – The National University Hospital of Iceland, ²Children's Hospital , Landspítali – The National University Hospital of Iceland, ³Faculty of Medicine, University of Iceland, ⁴The Reykjavík Birth Center, ⁵Faculty of Nursing and Midwifery, University of Iceland.

Correspondence: Asdis Bjork Gunnarsdottir,
asdisgun@landspitali.is

Key words: preterm delivery, perinatal outcome, migrant.

INTRODUCTION: The aim of this study was to assess the incidence and perinatal outcomes of preterm births in Iceland during 1997-2018 and compare outcomes of Icelandic and migrant mothers.

METHODS: The population in this historical population-based cohort study was all preterm (<37 weeks gestation) live-born singletons born in Iceland from January 1, 1997 to December 31, 2018 and their mothers; a total of 3837 births. Data was obtained from the Icelandic Medical Birth Registry. The group of migrant women was defined as women with other citizenship than Icelandic. Migrant women were divided into three groups based on their country of citizenship Human Development Index (HDI). Both descriptive and analytical statistics were used in data processing.

RESULTS: The incidence of preterm births in Iceland increased during the study period (3.9% 1998-2001 vs. 4.5% 2012-2018, p<0.005) and was significantly higher among migrant mothers, especially from countries with the lowest HDI (OR 1.49 (CI 1.21-1,81) p<0.001) . Infants of mothers from countries with the lowest HDI had a significantly lower prevalence of respiratory distress syndrome compared with infants of Icelandic mothers (4.5% vs. 11.4%, p=0.035) meanwhile infants of mothers from countries with a medium high HDI were more often small for gestational age compared with infants of Icelandic mothers (11.4% vs. .,9%, p=0.021).

CONCLUSION: Preterm births have become more common in Iceland and the incidence is significantly higher among migrant mothers, however the outcomes of preterm infants are generally good and mostly comparable between Icelandic and migrant mothers.