Preterm birth and stillbirth outcomes before and during the pandemic periods in the Canadian province of Manitoba
| Outcomes | Pre-pandemic | Pandemic | Immediate change* | Slope change† | |||
| Q4-2016 to Q1-2020 | Q2-2020 to Q1-2021 | Percentage change‡ | Parameter estimate (β2) | P value | Parameter estimate (β3) | P value | |
| Preterm birth, N (%) | |||||||
| Overall preterm birth | 4912 (8.83) | 1439 (9.43) | 4.50% | 1.37 | 0.0247 | −0.85 | 0.0004 |
| Lower income‡ | 2707 (10.05) | 806 (10.86) | 20.12% | 3.17 | 0.0057 | −1.33 | 0.0013 |
| Higher income§ | 2211 (7.72) | 641 (8.13) | −12.20% | −0.33 | 0.6535 | −0.39 | 0.1296 |
| Unknown income¶ | 14 (13.73) | 5 (10.72) | NA | NA | NA | NA | NA |
| Stillbirth, N (%) | |||||||
| Overall stillbirth | 323 (0.58) | 118 (0.77) | 18.57% | 0.12 | 0.4434 | −0.01 | 0.8296 |
| Lower income§ | 177 (0.65) | 70 (0.95) | 27.91% | 0.48 | 0.0852 | −0.12 | 0.2189 |
| Higher income¶ | 146 (0.51) | 47 (0.60) | 7.27% | −0.20 | 0.1714 | 0.07 | 0.1565 |
| Unknown income** | 0 (0) | 1 (1.56) | NA | NA | NA | NA | NA |
Significant results are in bold.
*Immediate change examines the change in level immediately after the onset of the pandemic in preterm birth (PTB) and stillbirth rates compared with pre-pandemic period.
†Slope change examines the change in slope during the pandemic in PTB and stillbirth rates compared with pre-pandemic period.
‡Percentage change=(percentage in Q22020 – percentage in Q12020)/percentage in Q12020 × 100.
§Lower income: pregnant women in the lowest and second lowest median neighbourhood income quintile.
¶Higher income: pregnant women residing in the neighbourhoods with the three highest median neighbourhood income quintiles.
**Unknown income: pregnant women who cannot be assigned a neighbourhood income from the census data.
NA, not available.