Journal
ANNALS OF EPIDEMIOLOGY
Volume 20, Issue 3, Pages 233-240Publisher
ELSEVIER SCIENCE INC
DOI: 10.1016/j.annepidem.2009.12.003
Keywords
Pregnancy; Preconception Care; Birth Weight; Vitamins; Premature Birth; Ethnic Groups; African Continental Ancestry Group
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Funding
- Harvard Pediatric Health Services Research
- Agency for Healthcare and Quality
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PURPOSE: In the United States, African American women deliver preterm and low birth weight infants two to three times more frequently than their white counterparts. Our objective was to determine whether maternal periconceptional multivitamin (MVI) use is associated with this disparity. METHODS: As a secondary analysis of previously collected data from mothers of non-malformed infants from the Slone Epidemiology Center Birth Defects Study, we conducted a retrospective cohort study of 2331 non-Hispanic white and 133 non-Hispanic black mother/infant pairs from 1998 through 2007. To estimate the effect of MVI use on birth outcomes, linear regression models were used. RESULTS: In white subjects, MVI use was not associated with birth weight, gestational age, or weight-for-gestational-age. However, in black subjects, MVI use was associated with a 536-gram increased birth weight (p = 0.001). Black MVI users also had longer gestations (although not statistically significant). When birth weights were adjusted for gestational age using z scores, MVI use was associated with increased fetal growth in black infants (+0.86 score units, 95% confidence interval: 0.35-1.36). CONCLUSIONS: The present findings suggest MVI use may improve fetal growth and possibly gestational age in the offspring of African American women. Ann Epidemiol 2010;20:233-240. (C) 2010 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
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