In a national study of births to farmers in Norway, grain farming was associated with short gestational age (21-24 weeks). An impact of selective fertility and maternal heterogeneity on the association was suspected but could not be assessed further in a traditional birth-based design. Thus, analyses based on the mother as the observational unit were performed. A total of 45,969 farmers with a ...

Background Maternal lower genital tract during pregnancy is a complex niche of microbes that normally inhabit or cause infections in few instances. Association of various microbial flora and adverse pregnancy outcomes is being increasingly explored. The study was aimed to determine the prevalence of lower genital tract infections (LGTI) among pregnant women and to determine the common etiologie...

BACKGROUND Studies from the United States and the United Kingdom have found that imprisoned women are less likely to experience poorer maternal and perinatal outcomes than other disadvantaged women. This population-based study used both community controls and women with a history of incarceration as a control group, to investigate whether imprisoned pregnant women in New South Wales, Australia,...

OBJECTIVE The aim of the study was to hierarchically assess the predictive power of low and high birth weight, pre-term and post-term birth, and low Apgar score as the risk factors for ADHD. METHOD The data of 132 boys diagnosed with ADHD and 146 boys from control group, aged 6 to 18 years, have been analyzed. The boys were categorized according to term of birth, birth weight, and Apgar score...

BACKGROUND Preterm birth (PTB)is a major clinical problem associated with perinatal mortality and morbidity. The aim of the present study is to identify risk factors associated with PTB in Mosul, Iraq. METHODS A case-control study was conducted in Mosul, Iraq, from 1st September, 2003 to 28th February, 2004. RESULTS A total of 200 cases of PTB and 200 controls of full-term births were scree...

Thousands of genome-wide association studies (GWAS) have been conducted to identify the genetic variants associated with complex disorders. However, only a small proportion of phenotypic variances can be explained by the reported variants. Moreover, many GWAS failed to identify genetic variants associated with disorders displaying hereditary features. The "missing heritability" problem can be p...

Children from prior relationships potentially complicate fertility decision-making in new cohabitations and marriages. On the one hand, the "value of children" perspective suggests that unions with and without stepchildren have similar-and deliberate-reasons for shared childbearing. On the other hand, multipartnered fertility (MPF) research suggests that childbearing across partnerships is ofte...

OBJECTIVE To evaluate the association between gestational age at birth and the risk of subsequent development of asthma. STUDY DESIGN We conducted a retrospective observational hospital-based birth case-control study in a university-based obstetrics and gynecology department in Finland. A total of 44,173 women delivering between 1989 and 2008 were linked with the social insurance register to ...

Pre-term birth occurs in 5% to 10% of all pregnancies in North America. This figure may be higher in certain population groups and has not decreased over the past 20 to 30 years. Although some pre-term births may be elective, approximately 30% occur in association with an underlying infectious process, and about 50% are idiopathic pre-term births of unknown cause. Pre-term birth is associated w...

Background Japan has the population with the highest proportion of aged people in the world and it rapidly continues to grow due to long life expectancy and a low birth rate, while traditional supports for elderly people are eroding. In response, the Japanese Government initiated mandatory public long-term care insurance (LTCI) in 2000. However, little has been published on the report of evalua...