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Preterm delivery:effects of socioeconomic factors, psychosocial stress, smoking, alcohol, and caffeine

Preterm delivery:effects of socioeconomic factors, psychosocial stress, smoking, alcohol, and caffeine
Preterm delivery:effects of socioeconomic factors, psychosocial stress, smoking, alcohol, and caffeine
OBJECTIVE--To examine the relation between preterm birth and socioeconomic and psychological factors, smoking, and alcohol, and caffeine consumption. DESIGN--Prospective study of outcome of pregnancy. SETTING--District general hospital in inner London. PARTICIPANTS--1860 consecutive white women booking for delivery; 1513 women studied after exclusion because of multiple pregnancy and diabetes, refusals, and loss to follow up. MEASUREMENTS--Gestational age was determined from ultrasound and maternal dates; preterm birth was defined as less than 37 completed weeks. Independent variables included smoking, alcohol and caffeine consumption, and a range of indicators of socioeconomic status and psychological stress. MAIN RESULTS--Unifactorial analyses showed that lower social class, less education, single marital status, low income, trouble with "nerves" and depression, help from professional agencies, and little contact with neighbours were all significantly associated with an increased risk of preterm birth. There were no apparent effects of smoking, alcohol, or caffeine on the length of gestation overall, although there was an association between smoking and delivery before 32 weeks. Cluster analysis indicated three subgroups of women delivering preterm: two predominantly of low social status and a third of older women with higher social status who did not smoke. Mean gestational age was highest in the third group. CONCLUSIONS--Adverse social circumstances are associated with preterm birth but smoking is not, apart from an association with very early births. This runs counter to findings for fetal growth (birth weight for gestational age) in this study, where a strong effect of smoking on fetal growth was observed but there was no evidence for any association with psychosocial factors.
531-535
Peacock, Janet L.
1cb1242c-7606-4f8e-86d0-d3cd2ceff782
Bland, J. Martin
65bca4e9-0ceb-44f4-b5ac-3ff5e0b5945c
Anderson, H. Ross
2197f0c6-7670-4e83-b6d3-1233ac58f7db
Peacock, Janet L.
1cb1242c-7606-4f8e-86d0-d3cd2ceff782
Bland, J. Martin
65bca4e9-0ceb-44f4-b5ac-3ff5e0b5945c
Anderson, H. Ross
2197f0c6-7670-4e83-b6d3-1233ac58f7db

Peacock, Janet L., Bland, J. Martin and Anderson, H. Ross (1995) Preterm delivery:effects of socioeconomic factors, psychosocial stress, smoking, alcohol, and caffeine. The BMJ, 311 (7004), 531-535.

Record type: Article

Abstract

OBJECTIVE--To examine the relation between preterm birth and socioeconomic and psychological factors, smoking, and alcohol, and caffeine consumption. DESIGN--Prospective study of outcome of pregnancy. SETTING--District general hospital in inner London. PARTICIPANTS--1860 consecutive white women booking for delivery; 1513 women studied after exclusion because of multiple pregnancy and diabetes, refusals, and loss to follow up. MEASUREMENTS--Gestational age was determined from ultrasound and maternal dates; preterm birth was defined as less than 37 completed weeks. Independent variables included smoking, alcohol and caffeine consumption, and a range of indicators of socioeconomic status and psychological stress. MAIN RESULTS--Unifactorial analyses showed that lower social class, less education, single marital status, low income, trouble with "nerves" and depression, help from professional agencies, and little contact with neighbours were all significantly associated with an increased risk of preterm birth. There were no apparent effects of smoking, alcohol, or caffeine on the length of gestation overall, although there was an association between smoking and delivery before 32 weeks. Cluster analysis indicated three subgroups of women delivering preterm: two predominantly of low social status and a third of older women with higher social status who did not smoke. Mean gestational age was highest in the third group. CONCLUSIONS--Adverse social circumstances are associated with preterm birth but smoking is not, apart from an association with very early births. This runs counter to findings for fetal growth (birth weight for gestational age) in this study, where a strong effect of smoking on fetal growth was observed but there was no evidence for any association with psychosocial factors.

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Published date: August 1995

Identifiers

Local EPrints ID: 72844
URI: http://eprints.soton.ac.uk/id/eprint/72844
PURE UUID: 5ea9a02c-0e70-4ac2-8cfb-3085f4e0e0c0

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Date deposited: 03 Mar 2010
Last modified: 22 Jul 2022 17:12

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Contributors

Author: Janet L. Peacock
Author: J. Martin Bland
Author: H. Ross Anderson

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