Importance of the environment for gestational duration variability and correlation between relatives - results from the Medical Swedish Birth Registry, 1973-2012
Reviewartikel, 2020

It has been suggested that the intergenerational associations in gestational age at delivery are considerably affected by temporal changes in the environmental conditions. We explored whether changing environment affects familial resemblance of gestational age at delivery. Understanding how correlation changes in different settings allows to design better studies aimed to detect genes and environmental factors involved in the parturition process. The Swedish Medical Birth Register was used to retrieve births during 1973-2012. In total, 454,433 parent-child, 2,247,062 full sibling, 405,116 maternal half-sibling and 469,995 paternal half-sibling pairs were identified. A decreasing trend in correlation, associated with increasing age gaps, was observed among all siblings, with the largest drop for full siblings, from p = 0.32 (95% confidence interval (CI): 0.31, 0.33) for full siblings with one-year gap to p = 0.16 (95% CI: 0.10, 0.22) for full siblings with age gap above 20 years. A variation in association between full siblings born up to two years apart was observed; estimate p = 0.28 (95% CI: 0.26, 0.3) in 1973, and p = 0.36 (95% CI: 0.33, 0.38) in 2012. Observed variability in the association in gestational age at delivery between the relatives with respect to their birth year or age gap suggests the existence of temporally changing environmental factors.

Författare

Dominika Modzelewska

Göteborgs universitet

Pol Sole-Navais

Göteborgs universitet

G. Zhang

Cincinnati Children's Hospital Medical Center

University of Cincinnati

L. J. Muglia

Burroughs Wellcome Fund

University of Cincinnati

Cincinnati Children's Hospital Medical Center

Staffan Nilsson

Chalmers, Matematiska vetenskaper, Tillämpad matematik och statistik

Bo Jacobsson

Sahlgrenska universitetssjukhuset

Norwegian Institute of Public Health

Göteborgs universitet

PLoS ONE

1932-6203 (ISSN) 19326203 (eISSN)

Vol. 15 7 July e0236494

Ämneskategorier

Pediatrik

Folkhälsovetenskap, global hälsa, socialmedicin och epidemiologi

Reproduktionsmedicin och gynekologi

DOI

10.1371/journal.pone.0236494

PubMed

32706811

Mer information

Senast uppdaterat

2020-09-23