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  • Original Article
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Maternal Infection and Risk of Cerebral Palsy in Term and Preterm Infants

Journal of Perinatology volume 25, pages 108–113 (2005)Cite this article

Abstract

OBJECTIVE:

We tested the hypothesis that term and preterm infants exposed to maternal infection at the time of delivery are at increased risk of developing cerebral palsy (CP).

STUDY DESIGN:

A population-based case–control study was conducted using Washington State birth certificate data linked to hospital discharge data. Cases (688) were children ≤6 years old, singleton births, hospitalized during 1987 to 1999 with an ICD-9 diagnosis code for CP. Controls were 3068 singleton birth infants randomly selected from birth records for the same years without CP-related hospitalizations. Infection information was available only for the birth hospitalization.

RESULTS:

Infants of women who had any infection during their hospitalization for delivery were at increased risk of CP (odds ratio (OR) 3.1, 95% confidence interval (CI) 2.3 to 4.2). This was observed for term deliveries (OR 1.8, 95% CI 1.1 to 2.8) and preterm deliveries (OR 2.3, 95% CI 1.3 to 4.2).

CONCLUSIONS:

Our results suggest that maternal infection is a risk factor for CP in both term and preterm infants.

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Acknowledgements

We thank Mr. Bill O’Brien for his programming and data management expertise, the Washington State Department of Health for providing data access, and Drs. Michelle Williams and Christine Gleason for their advice and support.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Pediatrics, Division of Neonatology, University of Washington, Seattle, WA, USA

    Michael D Neufeld MD, MPH

  2. Department of Anesthesiology, Montreal Children's Hospital, McGill University Health Centre, Montreal, Quebec, Canada

    Chantal Frigon MD, MS

  3. Department of Critical Care Medicine, The Doernbecher Children's Hospital, Oregon Health & Science University, Portland, OR, USA

    Alan S Graham MD

  4. Department of Epidemiology, Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center, School of Public Health and Community Medicine, University of Washington, Seattle, WA, USA

    Beth A Mueller DrPH, MPH

Authors
  1. Michael D Neufeld MD, MPH
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  3. Alan S Graham MD
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  4. Beth A Mueller DrPH, MPH
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Neufeld, M., Frigon, C., Graham, A. et al. Maternal Infection and Risk of Cerebral Palsy in Term and Preterm Infants. J Perinatol 25, 108–113 (2005). https://doi.org/10.1038/sj.jp.7211219

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