Is vaginal douching associated with preterm delivery?
BACKGROUND
To examine the hypothesized association between vaginal douching and preterm delivery, we conducted a study among women in a managed care organization in Atlanta, GA.


METHODS
We drew a stratified random sample of 262 preterm (20-36 weeks' gestation) and 804 term deliveries that occurred between January 1996 and April 1997. Data were collected from telephone interviews and medical records. We used proportional hazards regression to compute gestation-specific conditional probabilities of delivery. The risk of preterm delivery associated with douching was examined, adjusted for potential confounders.


RESULTS
Douching during pregnancy increased the overall risk of preterm delivery (hazard ratio = 1.9, 95% confidence interval = 1.0-3.7).


CONCLUSIONS
Further research to clarify the relation between douching and preterm delivery should pay particular attention to the role of vaginal infections.
Bruce
F Carol
FC
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Division of Reproductive Health, Atlanta, GA 30341, USA. cbruce@cdc.gov
Kendrick
Juliette S
JS
Kieke
Burney A
BA
Jagielski
Stanley
S
Joshi
Rahul
R
Tolsma
Dennis D
DD
D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D000367:Age Factors; D005260:Female; D005845:Georgia / Q000453:epidemiology; D005865:Gestational Age; D006801:Humans; D008875:Middle Aged; D007752:Obstetric Labor, Premature / Q000453:epidemiology* / Q000208:ethnology; D011247:Pregnancy; D011256:Pregnancy Outcome; D016016:Proportional Hazards Models; D012307:Risk Factors; D012959:Socioeconomic Factors; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires; D007507:Therapeutic Irrigation / Q000009:adverse effects* / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D013997:Time Factors; D014621:Vagina / Q000502:physiology