Relationship between preterm birth of infant and medication during pregnancy in women of childbearing age in Shaanxi

Objective: To understand the relationship between medication during pregnancy and single live preterm birth of infant in women of childbearing age in Shaanxi province.

Methods: A cross-sectional design was used in this study and stratified multistage random sampling method was used. A questionnaire survey was conducted in the childbearing-aged women selected through multi stage stratified random sampling in Shaanxi during 2010 to 2013. Qualitative datum was described by percentage and measurement datum was described by mean±standard deviation. Logistic regression analysis was done to evaluate the relationship between medication during pregnancy and preterm birth of infant.

Results: The overall incidence rate of premature birth was 2.7% in Shaanxi. Among the 28 841 mothers participating in this study, the proportion of medication use at any time during pregnancy was 15.8%, and the most commonly used drug was cold medicine (5.9%). After adjusting all confounding factors, the multivariable logistic regression analysis results showed that taking hormone medicine (OR=2.23, 95%CI: 1.19-4.18), antihypertensive medicine (OR=7.74, 95%CI: 4.28-13.95) and other medicines (OR=2.15, 95%CI: 1.60-2.89) during early pregnancy were the risk factors for preterm delivery, the risk was 2.23 times, 7.74 times and 2.15 times higher compared with those taking no these medicines.

Conclusion: Using hormone medicine, antihypertensive medicine and other medicines during pregnancy increased the risk for preterm delivery in women of childbearing age in Shaanxi.