There are big differences in the surival rates of very preterm babies across high income countries

Embargoed until: Publicly released: 2025-08-26 11:49

Australia; New Zealand; International

Photo by Joshua Taylor on Unsplash

The survival rates of very pre-term babies, born at 22-23 weeks gestation, vary significantly across high-income countries, say Australian and international researchers, who say this may be due to differences in systems, care practices, attitudes, and culture. The study looked at 11 neonatal networks that were largely in high-income countries, including Australia and New Zealand, and found that the percentage of babies born at 22 weeks who survived to be discharged from hospital ranged from 9% to 64%. For Australia and New Zealand, the rate was around 20%. For babies born at 23 weeks, survival rates were between 16 and 80%, with Australia sitting at around the 50% mark. The authors suggest that further research is necessary to determine the reasons for the variation.

Attachments

Note: Not all attachments are visible to the general public. Research URLs will go live after the embargo ends.

Research JAMA, Web page Please link to the article in online versions of your report (the URL will go live after the embargo ends).

Journal/
conference: JAMA Pediatrics

Research:Paper

Organisation/s: The University of New South Wales, University of Toronto, Canada

Funder: The International Network for Evaluation of Outcomes (iNeo) has been supported by the Canadian Institutes of Health Research (APR-126340 and PBN 150642 to Dr Shah). The Australian and New Zealand Neonatal Network is predominantly funded by membership contributions from the participating centers. The Canadian Neonatal Network is supported by a team grant from the Canadian Institutes of Health Research (CTP 87518) and by the participating centers. The Finnish Medical Birth Register is governmentally funded and kept by the National Institute for Health andWelfare. The Israel Neonatal Network very low–birth weight infant database is partially funded by the Israel Center for Disease Control and the Ministry of Health. The Neonatal Research Network of Japan is partly funded by a Health Labour Sciences Research Grant from the Outcomes of Preterm Infants Born at 22 to 23Weeks’ Gestation Original Investigation Research jamapediatrics.com (Reprinted) JAMA Pediatrics Published online August 25, 2025 E9 Confidential: Embargoed Until 11:00 am ET, August 25, 2025. Do Not Distribute © 2025 American Medical Association. All rights reserved, including those for text and data mining, AI training, and similar technologies. Ministry of Health, Labour andWelfare of Japan. The Spanish Neonatal Network is supported by funds from the Spanish Neonatal Society. The Swedish Neonatal Quality Register is funded by the Swedish government (Ministry of Health and Social Affairs), the Swedish Association of Local Communities and Regions, and the participating neonatal intensive care units (NICUs). The Swiss Neonatal Network is partially funded by the participating NICUs in the form of membership fees. This research was also supported by the Instituto de Investigación Sanitaria Carlos III (Ministry of Science, Innovation and Universities, Kingdom of Spain) (FIS17/0131 to Dr Vento Torres); Redes Temáticas de Investigación Cooperativa en Salud was funded by grant PN 2018-2021 from the Health Research Institute Carlos III, National Institute of Health Carlos III Sub-Directorate General for Research Assessment and Promotion, the European Regional Development Fund (RD16/ 0022), and grants from a regional agreement on clinical research) between Region Stockholm and Karolinska Institutet (2020-0443 to Dr Norman).

Media Contact/s

Contact details are only visible to registered journalists.