Identifying critical periods of susceptibility for maternal exposure to biothermal stress and the risks of stillbirth and spontaneous preterm birth in Western Australia.

Nyadanu, SD; Tessema, GA; Mullins, B; Gasparrini, AORCID logo; Pereira, G and (2024) Identifying critical periods of susceptibility for maternal exposure to biothermal stress and the risks of stillbirth and spontaneous preterm birth in Western Australia. American journal of epidemiology (kwae43). kwae431-. ISSN 0002-9262 DOI: 10.1093/aje/kwae431
Copy

A few studies investigated critical periods of temperature and the risks of stillbirth and preterm birth. This study aimed to identify critical periods of composite biothermal stress (Universal Thermal Climate Index, UTCI) for stillbirth and spontaneous preterm birth (sPTB). From the Midwives Notification System, 415,271 singleton births between 1st January 2000 and 31st December 2015 were linked to spatiotemporal UTCI in Western Australia. Covariate-adjusted weekly and monthly distributed lag non-linear Cox regression from twelve weeks before conception to birth were performed. Relative to median exposure (14.2 °C), extreme UTCI levels (1st-10th and 90th-99th centiles) were associated with higher hazards of stillbirth and sPTB, especially stronger at lower than higher exposures. Critical susceptible periods at 1st centile (10.2°C) exposure were found during gestational weeks 21-42 with the strongest hazard of 1.14 (95% CI 1.03, 1.27) in the 42nd week for stillbirth and during gestational weeks 26-36 with the strongest hazard of 1.09 (95% CI 1.06, 1.12) in the 36th week for sPTB. Monthly exposure showed a similar pattern but with greater magnitude. Mid to late gestation showed critical susceptible periods of biothermal stress on the birth outcomes, suggesting further studies and timely climate-related healthcare interventions.

mail Request Copy

picture_as_pdf
Nyadanu-etal-2024-Identifying-critical-periods-of-susceptibility-for-maternal-exposure-to-biothermal-stress-and-the-risks-of-stillbirth-and-spontaneous-preterm-birth-in-Western-Australia.pdf
subject
Accepted Version
error
This is an author accepted manuscript version of an article accepted for publication, and following peer review. Please be aware that minor differences may exist between this version and the final version if you wish to cite from it.
lock_clock
Restricted to Repository staff only until 8 November 2025
copyright
Available under Copyright the publishers

Request Copy
mail Request Copy

Supplemental Material
lock_clock copyright

Atom BibTeX OpenURL ContextObject in Span Multiline CSV OpenURL ContextObject Dublin Core Dublin Core MPEG-21 DIDL Data Cite XML EndNote HTML Citation JSON MARC (ASCII) MARC (ISO 2709) METS MODS RDF+N3 RDF+N-Triples RDF+XML RIOXX2 XML Reference Manager Refer Simple Metadata ASCII Citation EP3 XML
Export

Downloads