Ulcerative colitis and pregnancy outcomes in an Asian population.
OBJECTIVE
As the prevalence of ulcerative colitis (UC) is much higher in Western countries than in Asian countries, previous investigations of pregnancy outcomes for women with UC were limited to people of European descent. This study was aimed at examining the risk of adverse pregnancy outcomes (low birth weight (LBW), preterm birth, small for gestational age (SGA), and cesarean section (CS)) among Asian women with UC.


METHODS
Using a 3-year nationwide population-based database, we identified a total of 196 women who gave birth from 2001 to 2003, who were diagnosed with UC within 2 years before their index deliveries. A total of 1,568 unaffected pregnant women matched these cases according to age and year of delivery. Conditional logistic regression analyses were performed to estimate risk.


RESULTS
There were significant differences between women with and without UC in terms of LBW (12.76% vs. 5.55, P<0.001) and preterm births (11.73% vs. 6.25%, P=0.004). After adjusting for infant gender, parity, maternal age, highest maternal educational level, parental age difference, maternal marital status, hypertension, diabetes, anemia, family monthly income, as well as conditioning on maternal age and year of delivery, the odds of LBW and preterm births for women with UC were 2.36 (95% confidence interval (CI)=1.45-3.82) and 1.90 (95% CI=1.16-3.11) times, respectively, those for unaffected women.


CONCLUSIONS
Although UC often follows a milder disease course in Asians than in people of European descent, we demonstrated that Asian women suffering from UC were still at risk of having preterm and LBW babies, compared with unaffected mothers.
Lin
Herng-Ching
HC
School of Health Care Administration, Taipei Medical University, Taipei, Taiwan.
Chiu
Ching-Che Jason
CC
Chen
Shu-Fen
SF
Lou
Horng-Yuan
HY
Chiu
Wen-Ta
WT
Chen
Yi-Hua
YH
D000328:Adult; D044466:Asian People / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D016022:Case-Control Studies; D002585:Cesarean Section; D015331:Cohort Studies; D003093:Colitis, Ulcerative / Q000453:epidemiology*; D016208:Databases, Factual; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007230:Infant, Low Birth Weight; D007231:Infant, Newborn; D007234:Infant, Premature; D008297:Male; D011247:Pregnancy; D011248:Pregnancy Complications / Q000453:epidemiology*; D018570:Risk Assessment; D012959:Socioeconomic Factors; D013624:Taiwan / Q000453:epidemiology; D055815:Young Adult