Study finds residence in US a risk factor for preterm birth

February 9, 2012 in Health

In a study to be presented today at the Society for Maternal-Fetal Medicine's annual meeting, The Pregnancy Meeting, in Dallas, Texas, researchers will report findings that indicate that duration of stay in the United States is associated with increased risk of preterm birth for Hispanic women.

"It is uncertain how important environmental factors are in predisposition to preterm birth," said Radek Bukowski, MD, PhD, with the University of Texas Medical Branch, Department of , in Galveston, Texas, and one of the study's authors. "To address this question, the objective of the study was to determine the risk of preterm birth in relation to duration of residence in the U.S. among ."

For the study, entitled Residence in the U.S. a Risk Factor for Preterm Birth, Bukowski and his colleague, Julian Robinson, MD, with Brigham and Women's Hospital, Obstetrics and Gynecology, in Boston, Mass., studied 2,141 Hispanic women with a prior who participated in the National Health and (1999-2006), a probability sample of the U.S. population. They found that women living in the U.S. for less than 10 years had a 3.4 percent frequency of preterm birth and women living in the U.S. for 10 or more years had twice the risk of preterm birth and a 7.4 percent frequency of preterm birth. Furthermore, women born in the U.S. had a 10 percent frequency of preterm birth and three-fold risk of preterm birth. The risk of preterm birth did not appear to be related to a number of preterm birth investigated, but because it was acquired during residence in the U.S., it is potentially modifiable.

The findings support the hypothesis that preterm birth is, at least in part, related to environmental, potentially preventable, factors. It remains unclear what specific environmental factors protect or predispose women to preterm birth.

More information: A copy of the abstract is available at www.smfmnewsroom.o… g-abstracts/

Provided by Society for Maternal-Fetal Medicine

not rated yet  

Rank not rated yet
Relevant PhysicsForums posts

More news stories

Life expectancy gap widens between those with mental illness and general population

The gap between life expectancy in patients with a mental illness and the general population has widened since 1985 and efforts to reduce this gap should focus on improving physical health, suggest researchers in a paper ...

Health created 1 hour ago | popularity not rated yet | comments 0

Failure to use linked health records may lead to biased disease estimates

Failure to use linked electronic health records may lead to biased estimates of heart attack incidence and outcome, warn researchers in a paper published in BMJ today.

Health created 1 hour ago | popularity not rated yet | comments 0

Dietary advice on added sugar is damaging our health, warns heart expert

Dietary advice on added sugar is damaging our health, warns a cardiologist in BMJ today. Dr. Aseem Malhotra believes that "not only has this advice been manipulated by the food industry for profit but it is actually a risk ...

Health created 1 hour ago | popularity 5 / 5 (1) | comments 0

CDC presents recent trends in health behaviors of US adults

(HealthDay)—In 2008 to 2010, the prevalence of key health behaviors among U.S. adults varied, with about one in five adults current smokers and 62.1 percent overweight or obese, according to a report presented ...

Health created 3 hours ago | popularity not rated yet | comments 0

Americans still making unhealthy choices, CDC reports

(HealthDay)—The overall health of Americans isn't improving much, with about six in 10 people either overweight or obese and large numbers engaging in unhealthy behaviors like smoking, heavy drinking or ...

Health created 4 hours ago | popularity not rated yet | comments 0


New sleeping pill poised to hit US markets

An experimental sleeping pill from US drug company Merck is effective at helping people fall and stay asleep, according to reviewers at the US Food and Drug Administration, which could soon approve the new drug.

If you can remember it, you can remember it wrong

(Medical Xpress)—Native peoples in regions where cameras are uncommon sometimes react with caution when their picture is taken. The fear that something must have been stolen from them to create the photo ...

Reducing caloric intake delays nerve cell loss

Activating an enzyme known to play a role in the anti-aging benefits of calorie restriction delays the loss of brain cells and preserves cognitive function in mice, according to a study published in the May ...

B vitamins could delay dementia

(Medical Xpress)—Despite spending billions of dollars on research and development, drug companies have been unable to come up with effective treatments for dementia and Alzheimer's Disease (AD). Now, A. ...

Antidepressant reduces stress-induced heart condition

A drug commonly used to treat depression and anxiety may improve a stress-related heart condition in people with stable coronary heart disease, according to researchers at Duke Medicine.

Changing cancer's environment to halt its spread

By studying the roles two proteins, thrombospondin-1 and prosaposin, play in discouraging cancer metastasis, a trans-Atlantic research team has identified a five-amino acid fragment of prosaposin that significantly reduces ...