Back to Annual Meeting Page		American Public Health Association 133rd Annual Meeting & Exposition December 10-14, 2005 Philadelphia, PA

Abstract #119467

Janet T. Eyster, PhD, Claudia Holzman, DVM, MPH, PhD, and Veronika Skorokhod, MS. Department of Epidemiology, Michigan State University, College of Human Medicine, B601 West Fee Hall, E. Lansing, MI 48824, (517) 353-8623, eysterj@msu.edu

Previous studies with adult women suggest that preterm delivery (PTD) rates are lowest for women in their 20's and increase with advancing age, the increase occurring at an earlier age in Blacks than in Whites. To examine age-related patterns of PTD, the multi-site MODE project linked birth certificate and census data and created a measure of neighborhood deprivation. Women who delivered a singleton live infant were divided into four strata based on ethnicity (White non-Hispanic [WNH] and Black non-Hispanic [BNH]) and smoking status. Multi-level models were used to assess associations between maternal age, neighborhood deprivation score, age-deprivation interactions and risk of PTD in each stratum. In WNH non-smokers, PTD rates were significantly increased in higher deprivation neighborhoods at all ages. Elevated PTD risk with advancing maternal age was noted only in women age 35-39 living in high deprivation neighborhoods. In WNH smokers, deprivation scores had less influence on PTD rates. The effect of increased PTD risk with advancing maternal age was evident at age 30-34 in high deprivation neighborhoods only, and at age 35-39 for all WNH smokers. In BNH non-smokers PTD rates increased for all women age 30 and over, with the advanced maternal age effect being significantly stronger in high deprivation neighborhoods. In BNH smokers, there was no significant effect of neighborhood deprivation, but PTD rates were significantly higher with maternal age > 25. These analyses suggest that modeling high-risk behaviors such as individual-level smoking and neighborhood deprivation may help to elucidate relationships between maternal age and PTD.

Learning Objectives:

• After the presentation the listener will be able to demonstate using multi-level analysis how smoking and neighborhood deprivation effect the pattern of maternal age related perterm delivery rates.

Keywords: , Pregnancy Outcomes

Presenting author's disclosure statement:

I wish to disclose that I have NO financial interests or other relationship with the manufactures of commercial products, suppliers of commercial services or commercial supporters.