Twinning rates in developed countries have recently registered an increase. At the end of the 1970s, the change in mother's age structure has partially contributed to the growth in the proportion of multiple births. In fact, the evolution of twinning rates is related to the calendar of maternity since, comparatively to younger mothers, older women more frequently have twins. Moreover, the growi...

IMPORTANCE The unprecedented increase in multiple births during the past 3 decades is a major public health concern and parallels the uptake of medically assisted conception. The economic implications of such births are not well understood. OBJECTIVES To conduct a comprehensive economic and health services assessment of the frequency, duration, and cost of hospital admissions during the first...

BACKGROUND There are inconsistent reports about multiple sclerosis (MS) risk among migrants from low to high MS risk geographical regions. This study assessed the overall MS incidence and evaluated seasonality in birth and subsequent MS risk later in the life in second generation of migrants born and lived in Kuwait. METHODS We assessed the overall and gender-specific MS risk in second genera...

BACKGROUND The purpose of this study was to investigate whether perinatal health outcomes changed during the 1990s with the increasing use of IVF. METHODS Data were from the Finnish Medical Birth Register for periods 1991-1993 and 1998-1999. Outcomes of IVF infants and other infants were compared, both overall and separately for singleton and multiple births, by adjusting for mothers' backgro...

An examination of fertility trends in countries with multiple DHS surveys found that in the 1990s fertility stalled in midtransition in seven countries: Bangladesh, Colombia, Dominican Republic, Ghana, Kenya, Peru, and Turkey. In each of these countries fertility was high (more than six births per woman) in the 1950s and declined to fewer than five births per woman in the early or mid-1990s, be...

BACKGROUND Several birth characteristics are associated with high mortality risk: very young or old mothers, short birth intervals and high birth order. One justification for family planning programs is the health benefits associated with better spacing and timing of births. This study examines the extent to which the prevalence of these risk factors changes as a country transitions from high t...

OBJECTIVE To quantify the influence of increasing use of health-care services on rising rates of caesarean section in China. METHODS We used data from a population-based survey conducted by the United Nations Population Fund during September 2003 in 30 selected counties in three regions of China. The study sample (derived from birth history schedule) consisted of 3803 births to mothers aged l...

BACKGROUND We assessed the incidence of infants born small-for-gestational-age (SGA) and large-for-gestational-age (LGA) in an Italian cohort over 20 years (1993-2013). Furthermore, we investigated maternal factors associated with SGA and LGA births. METHODS A retrospective review of obstetric records was performed on infants born in Chieti (Italy) covering every 5(th) year over a 20-year per...