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Impact of maternal asthma on perinatal outcomes: a two-stage sampling cohort study

  • RESPIRATORY EPIDEMIOLOGY
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Abstract

There are conflicting results concerning the impact of maternal asthma during pregnancy on perinatal outcomes. The present study investigated the associations between maternal asthma during pregnancy and the risk of a small-for-gestational-age (SGA) infant, a low-birth-weight (LBW) infant, and preterm birth. A population-based cohort of 40,788 pregnancies from asthmatic and non-asthmatic women was reconstructed through the linking of three Quebec (Canada) administrative databases between 1990 and 2002. A two-stage sampling cohort design was used to collect additional information by way of a mailed questionnaire. The generalized estimation equation models were used to obtain adjusted odds ratios of SGA, LBW and preterm birth comparing asthmatic and non-asthmatic women. The cohort included 13,007 pregnancies from asthmatic and 27,781 pregnancies from non-asthmatic women. Final estimates showed that the odds of SGA (odds ratio: 1.27, 95% confidence interval: 1.14, 1.41), LBW (1.41: 1.22, 1.63) and preterm delivery (1.64: 1.46, 1.83) were significantly higher among asthmatic than non-asthmatic women. Mothers with asthma during pregnancy are more likely to have SGA, LBW, or preterm birth infants than non-asthmatic women. These results can be more easily generalized to women with lower socio-economic status since the cohort under represents women with high socio-economic status.

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Acknowledgments

This work was supported by the Canadian Institutes for Health Research. Lucie Blais, Sylvie Perreault and Catherine Lemière are the recipients of a career salary award from the Fonds de la recherche en santé du Québec (FRSQ). Lucie Blais and Marie-France Beauchesne hold the AstraZeneca Chair in Respiratory Health. At the time of the study, Faranak Firoozi was the recipient of a Doctoral Training Award from the FRSQ. The authors thank Mrs Marie-Claude Giguère from the Régie de l’assurance maladie du Québec, Mrs Chantal Girard from the Institut de la statistique du Québec and Mrs Louise Légaré and collaborators from the Ministère de la Santé et des Services sociaux du Québec for assistance with the data. The authors are grateful to the Commission d’accès à l’information du Québec for authorizing the study. The authors also thank Mrs Karine Chouinard for helping with the logistics of the study.

Conflict of interest

The authors declare that they have no conflict of interest for the submitted manuscript.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Faculty of Pharmacy, Université de Montréal, succursale Centre-ville, C.P. 6128, Montréal, QC, H3C 3J7, Canada

    Faranak Firoozi, Marie-France Beauchesne, Sylvie Perreault & Lucie Blais

  2. Research Center, Hôpital du Sacré-Cœur de Montréal, Montréal, QC, Canada

    Catherine Lemière, Marie-France Beauchesne, Amélie Forget & Lucie Blais

Authors
  1. Faranak Firoozi
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  2. Catherine Lemière
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  3. Marie-France Beauchesne
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  4. Sylvie Perreault
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  5. Amélie Forget
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  6. Lucie Blais
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Correspondence to Lucie Blais.

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Firoozi, F., Lemière, C., Beauchesne, MF. et al. Impact of maternal asthma on perinatal outcomes: a two-stage sampling cohort study. Eur J Epidemiol 27, 205–214 (2012). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10654-012-9654-1

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10654-012-9654-1

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