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Applying Precision Public Health to Prevent Preterm Birth

Preterm birth (PTB) is one of the major health-care challenges of our time. Being born too early is associated with major risks to the child with potential for serious consequences in terms of life-long disability and health-care costs. Discovering how to prevent PTB needs to be one of our greatest...

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Autores principales: Newnham, John P., Kemp, Matthew W., White, Scott W., Arrese, Catherine A., Hart, Roger J., Keelan, Jeffrey A.
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: Frontiers Media S.A. 2017
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5379772/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/28421178
http://dx.doi.org/10.3389/fpubh.2017.00066
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author Newnham, John P.
Kemp, Matthew W.
White, Scott W.
Arrese, Catherine A.
Hart, Roger J.
Keelan, Jeffrey A.
author_facet Newnham, John P.
Kemp, Matthew W.
White, Scott W.
Arrese, Catherine A.
Hart, Roger J.
Keelan, Jeffrey A.
author_sort Newnham, John P.
collection PubMed
description Preterm birth (PTB) is one of the major health-care challenges of our time. Being born too early is associated with major risks to the child with potential for serious consequences in terms of life-long disability and health-care costs. Discovering how to prevent PTB needs to be one of our greatest priorities. Recent advances have provided hope that a percentage of cases known to be related to risk factors may be amenable to prevention; but the majority of cases remain of unknown cause, and there is little chance of prevention. Applying the principle of precision public health may offer opportunities previously unavailable. Presented in this article are ideas that may improve our abilities in the fields of studying the effects of migration and of populations in transition, public health programs, tobacco control, routine measurement of length of the cervix in mid-pregnancy by ultrasound imaging, prevention of non-medically indicated late PTB, identification of pregnant women for whom treatment of vaginal infection may be of benefit, and screening by genetics and other “omics.” Opening new research in these fields, and viewing these clinical problems through a prism of precision public health, may produce benefits that will affect the lives of large numbers of people.
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spelling pubmed-53797722017-04-18 Applying Precision Public Health to Prevent Preterm Birth Newnham, John P. Kemp, Matthew W. White, Scott W. Arrese, Catherine A. Hart, Roger J. Keelan, Jeffrey A. Front Public Health Public Health Preterm birth (PTB) is one of the major health-care challenges of our time. Being born too early is associated with major risks to the child with potential for serious consequences in terms of life-long disability and health-care costs. Discovering how to prevent PTB needs to be one of our greatest priorities. Recent advances have provided hope that a percentage of cases known to be related to risk factors may be amenable to prevention; but the majority of cases remain of unknown cause, and there is little chance of prevention. Applying the principle of precision public health may offer opportunities previously unavailable. Presented in this article are ideas that may improve our abilities in the fields of studying the effects of migration and of populations in transition, public health programs, tobacco control, routine measurement of length of the cervix in mid-pregnancy by ultrasound imaging, prevention of non-medically indicated late PTB, identification of pregnant women for whom treatment of vaginal infection may be of benefit, and screening by genetics and other “omics.” Opening new research in these fields, and viewing these clinical problems through a prism of precision public health, may produce benefits that will affect the lives of large numbers of people. Frontiers Media S.A. 2017-04-04 /pmc/articles/PMC5379772/ /pubmed/28421178 http://dx.doi.org/10.3389/fpubh.2017.00066 Text en Copyright © 2017 Newnham, Kemp, White, Arrese, Hart and Keelan. http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
spellingShingle Public Health
Newnham, John P.
Kemp, Matthew W.
White, Scott W.
Arrese, Catherine A.
Hart, Roger J.
Keelan, Jeffrey A.
Applying Precision Public Health to Prevent Preterm Birth
title Applying Precision Public Health to Prevent Preterm Birth
title_full Applying Precision Public Health to Prevent Preterm Birth
title_fullStr Applying Precision Public Health to Prevent Preterm Birth
title_full_unstemmed Applying Precision Public Health to Prevent Preterm Birth
title_short Applying Precision Public Health to Prevent Preterm Birth
title_sort applying precision public health to prevent preterm birth
topic Public Health
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5379772/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/28421178
http://dx.doi.org/10.3389/fpubh.2017.00066
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