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Preterm birth outcomes among Asian women by maternal place of birth

Journal of Perinatology volume 40, pages 758–766 (2020)Cite this article

Subjects

Abstract

Objective

To investigate overall, spontaneous, and medically indicated preterm birth (PTB) rates between US-born and non-US-born Asian women living in California.

Study design

Nulliparous women with a singleton livebirth and Asian race in California between 2007 and 2011 were investigated. The prevalence of overall (<37 weeks), spontaneous, and medically indicated PTB was examined by self-reported race and place of birth among ten Asian subgroups.

Results

There were marked differences in PTB rates between the individual Asian subgroups. After adjustments, non-US-born Chinese, Japanese, Vietnamese, and Indian women had lower odds of overall PTB and Chinese, Vietnamese, Cambodian, and Indian women had lower odds of spontaneous PTB compared with their US-born counterparts.

Conclusion

Further investigation of biological and social factors contributing to these lower odds of spontaneous PTB among the non-US-born Asian population could potentially offer clues for reducing the burden of PTB among the US born.

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Fig. 1: Frequency of preterm birth among US born and non-US born Asian women.

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Funding

Funding from the March of Dimes (MOD) supported this research. The MOD had no role in the study design; in the collection, analysis, and interpretation of data; in the writing of the report; or in the decision to submit the article for publication. This work was presented as a poster at the 39th Annual Pregnancy Meeting of the Society for Maternal-Fetal Medicine in Las Vegas, Nevada, February 2019.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology, Division of Maternal-Fetal Medicine, Stanford University, Stanford, CA, USA

    Anna I. Girsen, Imee A. Datoc, Scarlett Karakash & Yasser Y. El-Sayed

  2. March of Dimes Prematurity Research Center at Stanford University School of Medicine, Stanford, CA, USA

    Jonathan A. Mayo, David K. Stevenson & Gary M. Shaw

  3. Department of Pediatrics, Division of Neonatal and Developmental Medicine, Stanford University, Stanford, CA, USA

    Jeffrey B. Gould, David K. Stevenson & Gary M. Shaw

Authors
  1. Anna I. Girsen
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  2. Jonathan A. Mayo
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  3. Imee A. Datoc
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  4. Scarlett Karakash
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  5. Jeffrey B. Gould
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  6. David K. Stevenson
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  7. Yasser Y. El-Sayed
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  8. Gary M. Shaw
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Correspondence to Anna I. Girsen.

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Girsen, A.I., Mayo, J.A., Datoc, I.A. et al. Preterm birth outcomes among Asian women by maternal place of birth. J Perinatol 40, 758–766 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41372-020-0633-1

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