CTF Summary Table: Home Uterine Activity Monitoring

Canadian Task Force on Preventive Health Care

Summary Table of Recommendations

Please note: In 2003, the CTF updated its Grades of Recommendations to include an "I Recommendation" for situations where insufficient evidence exists to allow a recommendation to be made. (Formerly, these situations were captured under a "C Recommendation".) This change is not retroactive, and all "C Recommendations" made prior to 2003 have not been reevaluated in light of the new "I" recommendation grade. For a discussion of these recommendation grades, please link to the 2003 article in the Canadian Medical Association Journal here.

The Use of Home Uterine Activity Monitoring to Prevent Preterm Birth

Adapted by Geoffrey Anderson, MD, PhD, Institute for Clinical Evaluative Sciences and Department of Health Administration, University of Toronto, from the report prepared for the US Preventive Services Task Force by Steven H. Woolf, MD, MPH

These recommendations were finalized by the Task Force in June 1993

MANEUVER EFFECTIVENESS LEVEL OF EVIDENCE <REF> RECOMMENDATION

Screening for preterm labour with home uterine activity (HUAM) monitor in pragnancies with risk factors.* Improved outcomes for women at high risk are unclear due to design limitations. Randomized controlled trials <4-7,10-13> (I) Insufficient evidence to recommend for or against HUAM as a screening test for preterm labour in high-risk* pregnancies. (C)

Routine screening for preterm labour with HUAM in normal pregnancies. There have been no controlled trials of HUAM in normal pregnancies and costs have been incompletely evaluated in published research. Expert opinion <1,14> (III) Given the costs of HUAM and the lack of research evidence on benefits, there is fair evidence to exclude HUAM screening in low-risk pregnancies. (D)

* High-risk pregnancies include: prior preterm deliveries, multiple gestations, uterine anomalies, or other risk factors.

Link to Full Text of this review

Link to Structured Abstract of this review

Link to Selected References list of this review

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MANEUVER	EFFECTIVENESS	LEVEL OF EVIDENCE <REF>	RECOMMENDATION
Screening for preterm labour with home uterine activity (HUAM) monitor in pragnancies with risk factors.*	Improved outcomes for women at high risk are unclear due to design limitations.	Randomized controlled trials <4-7,10-13> (I)	Insufficient evidence to recommend for or against HUAM as a screening test for preterm labour in high-risk* pregnancies. (C)
Routine screening for preterm labour with HUAM in normal pregnancies.	There have been no controlled trials of HUAM in normal pregnancies and costs have been incompletely evaluated in published research.	Expert opinion <1,14> (III)	Given the costs of HUAM and the lack of research evidence on benefits, there is fair evidence to exclude HUAM screening in low-risk pregnancies. (D)