Risk Factors Associated with Prematurity Other than Infectious Causes: A Prospective Multicenter Cohort Study in the Colombian Northeast

Abstract

Introduction: Prematurity causes great morbidity and mortality in childhood, which is why the identification and prevention of risk factors is essential. Objective: To identify the association of non-infectious risk factors with prematurity in two reference centers in northeastern Colombia. Patients and Methods: Multicenter prospective cohort study carried out between January 2019 and March 2020. A non-probabilistic convenience sampling was carried out in pregnant women with a single pregnancy, greater than 20 weeks who were then followed up monthly until the moment of birth. Preterm birth was considered as an outcome variable, after the normality analysis, based on Shapiro-Wilk Test; Chi2 or Fisher tests were performed for qualitative variables, and t-test or Wilcoxon test for quantitative variables, p <0.05 was considered significant and OR was calculated by regression logistics. Results: 559 pregnant women were studied, with 63 preterm births. An association was found between prematurity and gestational obesity (OR 2.71; 95% CI 1.52-4.81), hypertensive disorder associated with pregnancy (OR 3.88; 95% CI 2.18-6.90), premature rupture of membranes (OR 3.86 95% CI 1.60-9.29) and previous preterm labor in the current pregnancy (OR 17.39 95% CI 9.57-31.51). Conclusions: Prematurity is significantly associated with gestational obesity, pregnancy-associated hypertensive disorder, premature rupture of membranes, and previous preterm labor in current pregnancy. Further studies would be needed to support these findings.