Risk assessment of preterm birth through identification and stratification of pregnancies using a real-time scoring algorithm

INTRODUCTION: Preterm birth poses a significant challenge. This study evaluated a real-time scoring algorithm to identify and stratify pregnancies to indicate preterm birth. METHODS: All claims data of pregnant women were reviewed between 1 January 2014 and 31 October 2018 in Kentucky. RESULTS: A total of 29,166 unique women who were matched to a live newborn were documented, with the pregnancy identified during the first trimester in 54.1% of women. Negative predictive values, sensitivity, and positive likelihood ratios increased from the first to third trimesters as pregnant women who were matched to a live newborn had more visits with their physicians. The area under the receiving-operating characteristics curve on test data classifying preterm birth was 0.59 for pregnancies identified during the first trimester, 0.62 for pregnancies identified in the second trimester, and 0.73 for pregnancies identified in the third trimester. CONCLUSIONS: This study presents a real-time scoring algorithm of indicating preterm birth in the first trimester of gestation which permits stratification of pregnancies to provide more efficient early care management.