monthly number of preterm births and environmental physical activity

Recent studies have reported links between external physical factors and human homeostasis. Objective: to determine whether the monthly values of specific physical environmental factors are associated with the monthly number of preterm births in a major medical center in Israel. Methods: The sample included 1006 infants weighing less than 1500g born live to 774 mothers during 96 consecutive months (1995-2002) at a tertiary medical center in Israel. Monthly values of indices of solar, cosmic ray, and geomagnetic activity for the same period were obtained from national data monitoring facilities in the United States of America, Russia, and Finland. The findings were statistically correlated with the monthly number of preterm births.