title: Birth Outcomes of Children Born to Women with Rheumatoid Arthritis.
abstract: The aim of the study was to estimate the possible risk of adverse birth outcomes of children born to mothers with rheumatoid arthritis (RA).
  
  
  
  The dataset of large population-based Hungarian Case-Control Surveillance System of Congenital Abnormalities from 1980-1996 was evaluated including 22,843 cases with congenital abnormalities and 38,151 matched controls without any defect.
  
  
  
  36 cases (0.16%) had mothers with RA, while 68 controls (0.18%) were born to mothers without RA (OR=0.9, 95% CI=0.3-1.6). A higher risk for congenital abnormalities in the offspring of pregnant women with RA was not found. In fact there was a larger mean birth weight in the newborns without any defect of mothers with RA and it was associated with a somewhat lower rate of low birth weight.
  
  
  
  RA seems to have a beneficial effect not only for pregnant women but for their foetuses as well.
authors: Foundation for the Community Control of Hereditary Diseases, Budapest, Hungary.
authors: Éva
authors: É
authors: Pósfai
authors: Second Department of Obstetrics and Gynaecology, School of Medicine, Semmelweis University, Budapest, Hungary.
authors: Ferenc
authors: F
authors: Bánhidy
authors: Department of Personality and Health Psychology, Eötvös Loránd University, Budapest, Hungary.
authors: Róbert
authors: R
authors: Urbán
authors: Foundation for the Community Control of Hereditary Diseases, Budapest, Hungary.
authors: Andrew E
authors: AE
authors: Czeizel
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D001172:Arthritis, Rheumatoid / Q000150:complications* / Q000453:epidemiology; D016022:Case-Control Studies; D000013:Congenital Abnormalities / Q000453:epidemiology*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D006814:Hungary / Q000453:epidemiology; D007231:Infant, Newborn; D011159:Population Surveillance; D011247:Pregnancy; D011256:Pregnancy Outcome
keywords: birth weight; congenital abnormalities; population-based case-control study; pregnancy; preterm birth; rheumatoid arthritis