Aradhya, Siddartha;
Tegunimataka, Anna;
Kravdal, Øystein;
Martikainen, Pekka;
Myrskylä, Mikko;
Barclay, Kieron;
Goisis, Alice;
(2022)
Maternal age and the risk of low birthweight and pre-term delivery: a pan-Nordic comparison.
International Journal of Epidemiology
10.1093/ije/dyac211.
(In press).
Preview |
Text
dyac211.pdf - Published Version Download (517kB) | Preview |
Abstract
Background: Advanced maternal age at birth is considered a risk factor for adverse birth outcomes. A recent study applying a sibling design has shown, however, that the association might be confounded by unobserved maternal characteristics. / Methods: Using total population register data on all live singleton births during the period 1999–2012 in Denmark (N = 580 133; 90% population coverage), Norway (N = 540 890) and Sweden (N = 941 403) and from 2001–2014 in Finland (N = 568 026), we test whether advanced maternal age at birth independently increases the risk of low birthweight (LBW) (<2500 g) and pre-term birth (<37 weeks gestation). We estimated within-family models to reduce confounding by unobserved maternal characteristics shared by siblings using three model specifications: Model 0 examines the bivariate association; Model 1 adjusts for parity and sex; Model 2 for parity, sex and birth year. / Results: The main results (Model 1) show an increased risk in LBW and pre-term delivery with increasing maternal ages. For example, compared with maternal ages of 26–27 years, maternal ages of 38–39 years display a 2.2, 0.9, 2.1 and 2.4 percentage point increase in the risk of LBW in Denmark, Finland, Norway and Sweden, respectively. The same patterns hold for pre-term delivery. / Conclusions: Advanced maternal age is independently associated with higher risk of poor perinatal health outcomes even after adjusting for all observed and unobserved factors shared between siblings.
| Type: | Article |
|---|---|
| Title: | Maternal age and the risk of low birthweight and pre-term delivery: a pan-Nordic comparison |
| Open access status: | An open access version is available from UCL Discovery |
| DOI: | 10.1093/ije/dyac211 |
| Publisher version: | https://doi.org/10.1093/ije/dyac211 |
| Language: | English |
| Additional information: | Copyright © The Author(s) 2022. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of the International Epidemiological Association. This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted reuse, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. |
| Keywords: | Maternal age at birth, birth outcomes, sibling design, Nordic countries |
| UCL classification: | UCL UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > School of Education UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > School of Education > UCL Institute of Education UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > School of Education > UCL Institute of Education > IOE - Social Research Institute |
| URI: | https://discovery.ucl.ac.uk/id/eprint/10159053 |
Archive Staff Only
 |
View Item |
