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Biomedical subjects

C Middle

Publications and source records attributed to C Middle.

6 recordsLinked to original sources
PubMed1996

Birthweight and health and development at the age of 7 years.

This study was set up to compare the frequency of health, educational and behavioural problems in a geographically defined birth cohort of 7-year-old children grouped by weight at birth. The study design was based on a multi-stage postal survey, with sampling stratified by birthweight. It took place in the four counties of Oxfordshire, Buckinghamshire, Berkshire and Northamptonshire which make up the former Oxford region. We studied 1319 live births to women resident in the former Oxford region in 1985, including all those with birthweights under 1500 g, or whose weight was not recorded, and a sample of those who weighed 1500-2499 g, and of those who weighed 2500 g or more at birth. The children in the sample were traced through the National Health Service Central Register (NHSCR) and self-administered questionnaires were sent to their parents, general practitioners (GP) and teachers. Of the 1169 children who were alive at the age of 7 years and were successfully traced, 805 (75%) were followed up by postal survey. The use of health services, and of additional educational support was higher, and school performance was poorer among children who had weighed less than 1500 g at birth than among children who had weighed 2500 g or more, with the rates for children who had weighed 1500-2499 g falling in between. This survey method identifies the higher rate of health and educational problems in children weighing under 2500 g at birth, particularly those with birthweight under 1500 g, compared with other children. The method could be developed to provide a way of monitoring any changes over time in the prevalence of these problems. This information can be used to assess the health and educational needs of 7-year-old children in the population.

Adult↗
PubMed1995

Labour and delivery of 'normal' primiparous women: analysis of routinely collected data.

OBJECTIVE: To ascertain whether there is variation in obstetric practice within a defined subgroup of primiparous women. DESIGN: Analysis of routinely collected data. SUBJECTS: Ten thousand two hundred and ninety-five primiparous deliveries defined as 'normal' in Scotland during 1990 and 44,820 primiparous deliveries defined as 'normal' in England between April 1990 and April 1991. RESULTS: Little variation was found in the distribution of mothers' ages and gestational ages at delivery, and babies' birthweights. In both England and Scotland there was considerable variation between regions in instrumental delivery rates and caesarean section rates. There were many deficiencies in the quality of the data provided by the English Maternity Hospital Episode System. CONCLUSIONS: There is regional variation in instrumental delivery rates and caesarean section rates in England and Scotland. The poor quality of data for England makes interpretation of the cause of variation difficult because the extent to which variation may reflect deficiencies in the data, rather than differences in practice, is unknown. Improvements need to be made in Maternity Hospital Episode system data, increasing both coverage and data quality. Nevertheless, similar variations in instrumental delivery and caesarean section rates may be associated with differences in population characteristics not measured in these data sets of differences in obstetric practice.

Adolescent↗