Individual Participant Data Meta-Analysis on Cervical Length and Preterm Birth

An individual participant data meta-analysis (IPDMA) of 27 studies with 91,404 participants, conducted by Kelly Hughes and published on figshare in 2026. It quantifies the prognostic value of mid-trimester cervical length for spontaneous preterm birth in asymptomatic women with singleton pregnancy. The analysis found a non-linear L-shaped association, with shorter cervical length below 40 mm linked to progressively higher odds of preterm birth.

Use Cases

• Modeling the non-linear relationship between cervical length and preterm birth risk based on the described L-shaped association.
• Validating cervical length as a prognostic marker for spontaneous preterm birth in asymptomatic singleton pregnancies.
• Assessing potential effect modifiers on the association between cervical length and preterm birth, as mentioned in the study's purpose.

Strengths

• Includes individual participant data from 91,404 participants across 27 studies, enabling detailed meta-analysis.
• Primary analysis uses cervical length as a continuous variable with restricted cubic splines to model non-linear associations.
• Project was prospectively registered with PROSPERO (CRD42020146987), indicating a structured protocol.

Limitations

• Description metadata is limited; actual data quality requires manual inspection after download.
• Column-level documentation is absent; field semantics must be inferred after download.
• The authors note a suboptimal data retrieval rate (51% of all eligible participants) and a lack of comprehensive co-predictors across datasets.

Provenance

Source

Kelly Hughes via figshare.

Collection Method

Individual participant data meta-analysis (IPDMA) of cohort studies and non-treatment arms of RCTs.

Time Range

Literature search performed on 30/9/2020, with an update on 4/11/2025.

Freshness

Last updated 2026-06-02 17:40:05; freshness should be verified.