Hall, JA;
Benton, L;
Copas, A;
Stephenson, J;
(2017)
Pregnancy Intention and Pregnancy Outcome: Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis.
Maternal and Child Health Journal
, 21
(3)
pp. 670-704.
10.1007/s10995-016-2237-0.
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Abstract
Introduction Previous systematic reviews concluded that rigorous research on the relationships between pregnancy intentions and pregnancy outcomes is limited. They further noted that most studies were conducted in high-income countries and had methodological limitations. We aim to assess the current evidence base for the relationship between pregnancy intention and miscarriage, stillbirth, low birthweight (LBW) and neonatal mortality. In March 2015 Embase, PubMed, Scopus and PsychInfo were searched for studies investigating the relationship between pregnancy intention and the outcomes of interest. Methods Studies published since 1975 and in English, French or Spanish were included. Two reviewers screened titles and abstracts, read the full text of identified articles and extracted data. Meta-analyses were conducted where possible. Results Thirty-seven studies assessing the relationships between pregnancy intention and LBW were identified. A meta-analysis of 17 of these studies found that unintended pregnancies are associated with 1.41 times greater odds of having a LBW baby (95%CI 1.31, 1.51). Eight studies looking at miscarriage, stillbirth or neonatal death were found. The limited data concerning pregnancy loss and neonatal mortality precluded meta-analysis but suggest these outcomes may be more common in unintended pregnancies. Discussion While there seems to be an increased risk of adverse pregnancy outcome in unintended pregnancies, there has been little improvement in either the quantity of evidence from low-income countries or in the quality of evidence generally. Longitudinal studies of pregnancy intention and pregnancy outcome, where pregnancy intention is assessed prospectively with a validated measure and where analyses include confounding or mediating factors, are required in both high- and low-income countries.
| Type: | Article |
|---|---|
| Title: | Pregnancy Intention and Pregnancy Outcome: Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis |
| Location: | United States |
| Open access status: | An open access version is available from UCL Discovery |
| DOI: | 10.1007/s10995-016-2237-0 |
| Publisher version: | http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s10995-016-2237-0 |
| Language: | English |
| Additional information: | Copyright © The Author(s) 2017. This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons license, and indicate if changes were made. |
| Keywords: | Low birthweight, Meta-analysis, Miscarriage, Neonatal mortality, Pregnancy intention, Stillbirth, Systematic review |
| UCL classification: | UCL UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > School of Life and Medical Sciences UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > School of Life and Medical Sciences > Faculty of Population Health Sciences > Institute for Global Health UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > School of Life and Medical Sciences > Faculty of Population Health Sciences > Institute for Global Health > Infection and Population Health UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > School of Life and Medical Sciences > Faculty of Population Health Sciences > UCL EGA Institute for Womens Health UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > School of Life and Medical Sciences > Faculty of Population Health Sciences > UCL EGA Institute for Womens Health > Reproductive Health |
| URI: | https://discovery.ucl.ac.uk/id/eprint/1537466 |
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