Relationship between prenatal negative life events and pregnancy outcomes

OBJECTIVE: To assess the prevalence of prenatal negative life events, and explore the effect of prenatal negative life events on pregnancy outcomes. METHODS: A total of 9137 postpartum women( average age: 28. 76±6. 53 years) who delivered live neonates with gestational age ≥28 weeks between April, 2012 to March, 2013 in 15 hospitals in Beijing, Guangdong, Hunan, Hubei, Sichuan and Shaanxi provinces were enrolled. Self-made questionnaire was used to collect general information, occurrence of negative life events during pregnancy, complications during pregnancy and pregnancy outcomes. Logistic regression models were used to analyze the effect of prenatal negative life events on adverse pregnancy outcomes and influencing factors of adverse pregnancy outcomes. RESULTS: In total of 1395 women( 15. 3%) had experienced prenatal negative life events, and 5439 women( 59. 5%) had adverse pregnancy outcomes. After adjusting for covariates, women who experienced prenatal negative life events had an increased risk of preterm birth( OR = 1. 257, 95% CI 1. 051-1. 504), and delivering low birth weight infants( OR = 1. 316, 95% CI 1. 055-1. 643). Multivariate Logistic regression models showed that prenatal negative life events( OR = 1. 201, 95% CI1. 056-1. 365), pregnancy-induced hypertension( OR = 2. 278, 95% CI 1. 867-2. 781), pre-pregnancy overweight or obese( OR = 1. 299, 95% CI 1. 140-1. 480) and delivery age above 35 years old( OR = 1. 197, 95% CI 1. 014-1. 413) were risk factors for adverse pregnancy outcomes; and primiparity( OR = 0. 808, 95% CI 0. 715-0. 913) were protective factors for adverse pregnancy outcomes. Among different types of negative life events, women with family disharmony had increased risk of adverse pregnancy outcomes than those without family disharmony after adjusting for covariates( OR = 1. 259, 95% CI1. 076-1. 473). CONCLUSION: In this study, prenatal negative life events were prevalent, and prenatal negative life events may increase the risk of pregnancy outcomes.