Hanyang Med Rev HMR Hanyang Medical Reviews 1738-429X 2234-4446 Hanyang University School of Medicine 10.7599/hmr.2009.29.4.386 Review Article Statistics and Medical Cost of Preterm in Korea Yoon Hye Sun M.D. Ph.D. Department of Pediatrics, Nowon Eulji Hospital, Eulji University, Seoul, Korea. Corresponding author (yhs3211@eulji.ac.kr) 11 2009 30 11 2009 29 4 386 390 30 08 2009 05 10 2009 © 2009 Hanyang University College of Medicine 2009 This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution Non-Commercial License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/3.0/) which permits unrestricted non-commercial use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.

This article reviews the neonatal birth rate, premature birth rate, premature survival rate and the neonatal treatment costs in Korea. The neonatal birth rate has decreased steadily during past 40 years, which is a serious social problem. However, the premature birth rate has increased by about 8~9% because most complicated pregnancies were early delivered and the social environment has changed. The survival rate of the preterm has increased remarkably due to improvements in neonatology in Korea from 40% in 1980, to 71% in 1990, and to 78% in 2000. The newest report in 2007 for survival rates of the preterm was 95.3% for low birth weight infants, 84.7% for very low birth weight infants and 67.7% for extremely low birth weight infants. The average total hospitalization cost per person who were admitted in the neonatal intensive care unit was 4,360,000 won. The portion of the hospitalization cost covered by the National health insurance was 77.1% and 22.9% of the total hospitalization cost was not covered by the National health insurance. The hospitalization cost increased as the birth weight decreased and as the hospitalization period increased.

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The changes of number of live-birth and total number of birth in one women in Korea.

The changes of number of live birth and the preterm birth rate. Square mark: birth weight less than 2,500 g, Triangular mark: birth weight less than 1,500 g.(From Bae CW10)

Trend in the survival rates for very low birth weight infants (VLBWI) and extremely low birth weight infant (ELBWI) in Korea. A. first half of the decade: B. second half of the decade.(From Kim KS et al.11)