Exploring Educational Disparities in Risk of Preterm Delivery: A Comparative Study of 12 European Birth Cohorts. Issue 3 (23rd March 2015)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Poulsen, Gry; Strandberg‐Larsen, Katrine; Mortensen, Laust; Barros, Henrique; Cordier, Sylvaine; Correia, Sofia; Danileviciute, Asta; van Eijsden, Manon; Fernández‐Somoano, Ana; Gehring, Ulrike; Grazuleviciene, Regina; Hafkamp‐de Groen, Esther; Henriksen, Tine Brink; Jensen, Morten Søndergaard; Larrañaga, Isabel; Magnus, Per; Pickett, Kate; Raat, Hein; Richiardi, Lorenzo; Rouget, Florence; Rusconi, Franca; Stoltenberg, Camilla; Uphoff, Eleonora P.; Vrijkotte, Tanja G. M.; Wijga, Alet H.; Vrijheid, Martine; Osler, Merete; Andersen, Anne‐Marie Nybo
• Is Part Of: Paediatric and perinatal epidemiology. Volume 29:Issue 3(2015)
• Page Start: 172
• Page End: 183
• Publication Date: 2015-03-23
• Subjects: Pediatrics -- Periodicals; Perinatology -- Periodicals; Pediatric epidemiology -- Periodicals; Infants (Newborn) -- Diseases -- Periodicals; 618.92
• DOI: 10.1111/ppe.12185
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 0269-5022

Abstract

<abstract abstract-type="main"> <title>Abstract</title> <sec id="ppe12185-sec-0001" sec-type="section"> <title>Background</title> <p>An association between education and preterm delivery has been observed in populations across Europe, but differences in methodology limit comparability. We performed a direct cross‐cohort comparison of educational disparities in preterm delivery based on individual‐level birth cohort data.</p> </sec> <sec id="ppe12185-sec-0002" sec-type="section"> <title>Methods</title> <p>The study included data from 12 European cohorts from Denmark, England, France, Lithuania, the Netherlands, Norway, Italy, Portugal, and Spain. The cohorts included between 2434 and 99 655 pregnancies. The association between maternal education and preterm delivery (22–36 completed weeks of gestation) was reported as risk ratios, risk differences, and slope indexes of inequality with 95% confidence intervals (CIs).</p> </sec> <sec id="ppe12185-sec-0003" sec-type="section"> <title>Results</title> <p>Singleton preterm live delivery proportion varied between 3.7% and 7.5%. There were large variations between the cohorts in the distribution of education and maternal characteristics. Nevertheless, there were similar educational differences in risk of preterm delivery in 8 of the 12 cohorts with slope index of inequality varying between 2.2 [95% CI 1.1, 3.3] and 4.0 [95% CI 1.4, 6.6] excess preterm deliveries per 100 singleton deliveries among the educationally most disadvantaged, and risk ratio between the lowest and highest education category varying from 1.4 [95% CI 1.1, 1.8] to 1.9 [95% CI 1.2, 3.1]. No associations were found in the last four cohorts.</p> </sec> <sec id="ppe12185-sec-0004" sec-type="section"> <title>Conclusions</title> <p>Educational disparities in preterm delivery were found all over Europe. Despite differences in the distributions of education and preterm delivery, the results were remarkably similar across the cohorts. For those few cohorts that did not follow the pattern, study and country characteristics did not explain the differences.</p> </sec> </abstract>