- New research study suggests that family history has a determining role in the preterm birth given by a pregnant patient.
- More than genetic factors, social determinants have a larger role.
- Pregnant women with sisters who have had a case of preterm birth are at a higher risk of preterm birth.
THD NewsDesk, Texas: A team of researchers at Baylor College of Medicine and Texas Children’s Hospital discovered a new way of determining a preterm birth. The findings published in the American Journal of Obstetrics & Gynecology suggest how family history can help in predicting preterm birth.
“This is a retrospective study of prospective data,” said Dr Kjersti Aagaard, Professor of Obstetrics and Gynaecology at Baylor and Texas Children’s Hospital.
“We developed a biobank and data repository called PeriBank, where we consistently asked our pregnant patients a set of questions about their familial history. We were able to take that detailed data and determine if that specific woman’s family history did or did not predict her delivering preterm.”
Findings of the study
Post collecting familial information, the research team attempted to estimate the risk of preterm birth. The gathered information included family history of the pregnant patient and cases of preterm birth in the women members of her family. The findings of the survey were based on scenarios for women who have previously given birth (multiparous), as well as women who have never given birth (nulliparous). The results showed:
- A nulliparous woman herself who was born preterm herself, her relative risk for delivering preterm was 1.75-fold higher.
- If her sister delivered preterm, her relative risk was 2.25-fold higher.
- If her grandmother or aunt delivered preterm, the risk was comparatively lower.
- If a multiparous mother with no prior preterm births was born preterm herself, her risk was 1.84-fold higher.
Dr Aagard further said,
“We’ve managed over the years to collect data from a substantial population of pregnant women that reflect Houston. There was considerable diversity by race, ethnicity, culture and socioeconomic status. This was a key strength of our study. With this breadth and depth of data reflective of the diversity of Houston, we were able to ask some good questions, which gave us essential information about ‘heritability’ of risk”.
“We know that for the majority of women who deliver a baby preterm, we cannot say that the cause of that preterm birth was in whole or in part genetics. Rather, this study provides subtle but important clues that it is more likely the shared familial background and its exposures that render risk”.
However, Dr Aagard maintained the stance that preterm births cannot be associated with the role of genetics alone. As observed through the findings, history of preterm birth in the pregnant woman or her sister is most likely to heighten the risks of preterm birth than such cases with their grandmother or aunts. This indicates that same-generation social determinants like racism and bias have a greater impact than genetic factors. Thus, environmental or social exposures or a combination of limited genetics plus common exposures can be attributed to preterm births. This study has successfully addressed the difficulties encountered by obstetricians and midwives in advising their patients on their risks of having a preterm birth.
Source: Hindustan Times
