Association between Maternal Serum Leptin Level and Preterm Birth among Parturients in Lagos, Nigeria

Background: Preterm birth is one of the major causes of neonatal morbidity and mortality worldwide. The association between occurrence of preterm birth and biomarkers measured in the maternal serum maybe helpful in predicting preterm birth especially in low resource settings. Aim: We aimed to examine the association between maternal serum leptin level and occurrence of preterm birth. Materials and Methods: This was an analytical cross-sectional study of women with preterm and term births in Lagos, Nigeria. One hundred and ninety women comprising of 95 women with preterm and term births respectively recruited. Maternal serum leptin levels were determined using Enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) technique. Data was analyzed by Stata version 16 (StataCorp, USA) statistical software with significance level set at p-value <0.05. Results: The mean serum leptin levels were significantly lower in women with preterm delivery compared to women with term delivery (1.48 ng/ml ± 0.72 vs. 1.75 ng/ml ± 0.67, p-value=0.007). On further analysis, women with very preterm birth had significantly lower serum leptin levels compared with women with moderate to late preterm and term births (1.28 ± 0.73 vs 1.55 ± 0.70 vs 1.75ng/ml ± 0.67, p-value=0.006). There was 57% reduction in the odds of having preterm delivery for every unit increase in serum leptin level on multivariate analysis (adjusted OR: 0.43, 95%CI: 0.26 – 0.71, P-value=0.001). Conclusion: Serum leptin concentration was significantly lower in women who had preterm births compared to women who had term births. Longitudinal studies are required to determine the predictive value of maternal serum leptin level with regards to preterm birth.