Association between maternal pre-pregnancy obesity and preterm birth according to maternal age and race or ethnicity: a population-based study

Publication date: Available online 5 August 2019Source: The Lancet Diabetes & EndocrinologyAuthor(s): Buyun Liu, Guifeng Xu, Yangbo Sun, Yang Du, Rui Gao, Linda G Snetselaar, Mark K Santillan, Wei BaoSummaryBackgroundThe relation between maternal pre-pregnancy obesity and preterm birth is controversial and inconclusive. We aimed to clarify the association between pre-pregnancy obesity and preterm birth by maternal age and race or ethnicity in a large, multiracial, multiethnic, and diverse population in the USA.MethodsWe did a population-based cohort study using nationwide birth certificate data from the US National Vital Statistics System for 2016 and 2017. We included all mothers who had a live singleton birth and who did not have pre-existing hypertension or diabetes. Pre-pregnancy obesity was defined as a pre-pregnancy BMI of at least 30 kg/m2. Preterm birth was defined as gestational age of less than 37 weeks. We used logistic regression models adjusted for maternal age, race or ethnicity, parity, education levels, smoking during pregnancy, previous history of preterm birth, marital status, infant sex, and timing of initiation of prenatal care to estimate the odds ratio (OR) of preterm birth.FindingsWe included 7 141 630 singleton livebirths in our analysis, 527 637 (7·4%) of which were preterm births. 127 611 (7·5%) Hispanic mothers, 244 578 (6·6%) non-Hispanic white mothers, and 102 509 (10·4%) non-Hispanic black mothers had preterm births. In the overal...
Source: The Lancet Diabetes and Endocrinology - Category: Endocrinology Source Type: research