Tree-based risk factor analysis of preterm delivery and small-for-gestational-age birth.
Using data collected at the Yale-New Haven Hospital, New Haven, Connecticut, in 1980-1982, the authors conducted a tree-based statistical analysis using preterm delivery and small for gestational age as outcomes and the following variables as putative risk factors: maternal age, marital status, ethnicity, education, current employment, smoking, alcohol use, caffeine consumption, marijuana use, hormones/diethylstilbestrol used by the mother, gravidity, parity, and passive smoking. The authors' analyses indicate that ethnicity is a leading factor contributing to both outcomes: Black women are more likely to have preterm deliveries as well as to deliver small-for-gestational age infants. The tree-based procedure leads to generally consistent results with more traditional secondary analyses of the same data set, but also provides a more fully integrated picture of the important relation. The full utility of these procedures for hypothesis generation remains to be explored.
Zhang
H
H
Department of Epidemiology and Public Health, Yale University School of Medicine, New Haven, CT 06520.
Bracken
M B
MB
D044383:Black People; D003627:Data Interpretation, Statistical; D004812:Epidemiologic Methods; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007231:Infant, Newborn; D007234:Infant, Premature; D007236:Infant, Small for Gestational Age; D007752:Obstetric Labor, Premature / Q000453:epidemiology* / Q000208:ethnology; D011247:Pregnancy; D012307:Risk Factors