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Maternal Obesity Without Chronic Illness Ups Preterm Delivery Risk

Risk of extremely preterm delivery varies by parity

FRIDAY, March 31, 2017 (HealthDay News) — Higher prepregnancy body mass index (BMI) is associated with increased risk of preterm delivery in the absence of chronic diseases, according to a study published recently in BJOG: An International Journal of Obstetrics and Gynaecology.

Sung Soo Kim, Ph.D., M.P.H., from the Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development in Rockville, Md., and colleagues assessed the association between prepregnancy BMI and the risk of preterm delivery using data from the Consortium on Safe Labor (2002 to 2008) on women with a prepregnancy BMI ≥18.5 kg/m² and without chronic diseases.

The researchers found that relative risk of spontaneous preterm delivery was increased for extremely preterm among overweight nulliparas (1.26; 95 percent confidence interval [CI], 0.94 to 1.70), obese class I (1.88; 95 percent CI, 1.30 to 2.71), and obese class II/III (1.99; 95 percent CI, 1.32 to 3.01). However, risk was decreased for moderate-to-late preterm delivery among overweight multiparas (0.90; 95 percent CI, 0.83 to 0.97), obese class I (0.87; 95 percent CI, 0.78 to 0.97), and obese class II/III (0.79; 95 percent CI, 0.69 to 0.90). Preterm delivery risk was increased with prepregnancy BMI in a dose-response manner.

“Prepregnancy BMI was associated with increased risk of preterm delivery even in the absence of chronic diseases, but the association was heterogeneous by preterm categories, gestational age, and parity,” the authors write.

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