Stillbirths among Advanced Maternal Age Women in the United States: 2003-2017

Deepa Dongarwar; Anjali Aggarwal; Kenneth Barning; Hamisu Mohammed Salihu

doi:10.21106/ijma.346

Stillbirths among Advanced Maternal Age Women in the United States: 2003-2017

Int J MCH AIDS. 2020;9(1):153-156. doi: 10.21106/ijma.346. Epub 2020 Feb 10.

Authors

Deepa Dongarwar¹, Anjali Aggarwal², Kenneth Barning², Hamisu Mohammed Salihu^{1

2}

Affiliations

¹ Center of Excellence in Health Equity, Training and Research, Baylor College of Medicine, Houston, Texas, USA.
² Department of Family and Community Medicine, Baylor College of Medicine, Houston, Texas, USA.

Abstract

The aim of the study was to evaluate the association between fetal stillbirth and advanced maternal age in the United States (US). This was a population-based study using the Natality and Fetal Death datasets for the years 2003-2017. We built Cox proportional regression models to examine the likelihood of stillbirth among women aged ≥40 years. Out of a total of 57,273,305 births, stillbirth was observed in 302,522, yielding a stillbirth rate of 5 per 1000. After adjusting for confounders, women of advanced age (≥40 years) had a 40-50% greater risk of stillbirth compared to women 20-29 years of age.

Keywords: Advanced maternal age; Cox proportional regression; Stillbirth; United States.