Vitamin D Webinar - cost of pre-term birth etc- Baggerly Nov 2013

 Download the PDF from Vitamin D Life

40 minute video on YouTube

$51,800 = cost of pre-term birth

20 = number needed to treat to prevent one pr-term birth
$ 2590 = Cost savings averaged over 20 pregnancies
Vitamin D Life computes that $80 of prevention would save $51,800 (A 600X Return on Investment)

• half as many pre-term births when there is enough Vitamin D
• 10% of all births are pre-term
• Thus, must give vitamin D to 20 women to prevent one pre-term birth
• Cost per woman for vitamin D during pregnancy is about $4
• Thus $80 ($4 X 20) would save $51,800

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Premature Babies Cost Employers $12.7 Billion Annually March Of Dimes Feb 2014

	Medical costs	Hospital days
Healthy	$5,085	2
Preterm and/or LBW	55,393	15

Preterm is < 37 weeks, LBW is < 2500 grams
Includes 1 year medical costs of infant, 3 months for mother
Costs adjusted to 2011 from a 2009 survey

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Pregnancy great if 40-60 ng of vitamin D

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88% of people get > 40 ng with 5,000 IU of vitamin D

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See also Vitamin D Life

• Pre-term births reduced in half if 40 ng of vitamin D in 3rd trimester – Nov 2014 authors include Bagggerly and Wagner
• Preterm infants more likely to have vitamin D levels below 20 ng – Feb 2014
• No preemie had even 30 ng of vitamin D, lower D associated with more Respiratory Distress – Aug 2013
• Pregnancy category listing has 750 items along with related searches
• Pre-term birth - many of risk factors are associated with low vitamin D
• Pregnant women will get Vitamin D – going beyond clinical trials - March 2015 project by Wagner and Baggerly
• Chance of preterm birth is strongly associated with low vitamin D – Feb 2015
• Premature birth 2.5X more likely if mother had low vitamin D and was having twins – July 2013
• Pre-term births 2.5 more likely to get hip replacement etc. (low vitamin D) – Nov 2014
• Preterm birth 30 percent more likely if low vitamin D – meta-analysis May 2016
• Search Vitamin D Life for Pre-term 1500 items as of Feb 2015
• Extreme preterm infants need a total of 1,000 IU of vitamin D daily – RCT April 2016

See also MarchOfDimes

Your premature baby What health problems can premature babies have after birth?

• Apnea. This is a pause in breathing for 20 seconds or more. Premature babies sometimes have apnea. It may happen together with a slow heart rate.
• Respiratory distress syndrome (RDS). This is a breathing problem most common in babies born before 34 weeks of pregnancy. Babies with RDS don’t have a protein called surfactant that keeps small air sacs in the lungs from collapsing.
• Intraventricular hemorrhage (IVH). This is bleeding in the brain. It usually happens near the ventricles in the center of the brain. A ventricles is a space in the brain that’s filled with fluid.
• Patent ductus arteriosis (PDA). This is a heart problem that happens in the connection (called the ductus ateriosus) between two major blood vessels near the heart. If the ductus doesn’t close properly after birth, a baby can have breathing problems or heart failure. Heart failure is when the heart can’t pump enough blood.
• Necrotizing enterocolitis (NEC). This is a problem with a baby’s intestines. It can cause feeding problems, a swollen belly and diarrhea. It sometimes happens 2 to 3 weeks after a premature birth.
• Retinopathy of prematurity (ROP). This is an abnormal growth of blood vessels in the eye. ROP can lead to vision loss.
• Jaundice. This is when a baby's eyes and skin look yellow. A baby has jaundice when his liver isn't fully developed or isn't working well.
• Anemia. This is when a baby doesn’t have enough healthy red blood cells to carry oxygen to the rest of the body.
• Bronchopulmonary dysplasia (BPD). This is a lung condition that can develop in premature babies as well as babies who have treatment with a breathing machine. Babies with BPD sometimes develop fluid in the lungs, scarring and lung damage.
• Infections. Premature babies often have trouble fighting off germs because their immune systems are not fully formed. Infections that may affect a premature baby include pneumonia, a lung infection; sepsis, a blood infection; and meningitis, an infection in the fluid around the brain and spinal cord.
• Not mentioned: death