In the mid-1980s we carried out a prospective study of early pregnancy in which we enrolled 221 health women who were planning to become pregnant. These women collected daily urine specimens for up to six months. We've assayed these specimens to describe the hormonal events of the menstrual cycle and early pregnancy. 155 women became clinically pregnant during the study, while 44 had pregnancies that ended so early that the pregnancies were detectable only by assay of urinary human chorionic gonadotropin. This unique study has been called a landmark, and continues to provide a rich resource for the description of the earliest stages of pregnancy. (More than 30,000 urine samples are still being stored.) We've published 50 papers from this study over the past two decades, some of which have led to new understanding of the fundamental processes of conception and early pregnancy. In addition, we have continued to make use of large population registries in order to pursue basic questions on pregnancy and maternal and infant health. We have worked especially closely with Norwegian colleagues in the analysis of the Norwegian Medical Birth Registry. Last year's progress. Preterm birth is strongly associated with mortality and morbidity of the baby. Most researchers have reasonably assumed that this risk is due to the immaturity of the newborn. However, it has become more apparent clinically that the causes of preterm delivery might also confer risk independent of the immaturity of the fetus. We have shown in simulations and in analyses of empirical data that half or more of the mortality of preterm babies are attributable to the causes of the early delivery rather than to preterm delivery itself. This insight has repercussions for many aspects of epidemiologic research. For example, statistical adjustments for gestational age are common in etiologic studies of perinatal outcomes. We have shown that such statistical adjustments can severely bias the results, and should not be carried out. This has implications for all studies of environmental effects on newborn outcomes.

Project Start
Project End
Budget Start
Budget End
Support Year
34
Fiscal Year
2011
Total Cost
$448,338
Indirect Cost
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State
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Wilcox, Allen J; Cortese, Marianna; Baravelli, Carl M et al. (2018) When Intuition Invites the Analytical Mind to Dance-The Essential Role of Creativity in Science. Epidemiology 29:753-755
Jukic, Anne Marie Z; Wilcox, Allen J; McConnaughey, D Robert et al. (2018) 25-Hydroxyvitamin D and Long Menstrual Cycles in a Prospective Cohort Study. Epidemiology 29:388-396
Petersen, Tanja Gram; Liew, Zeyan; Andersen, Anne-Marie Nybo et al. (2018) Use of paracetamol, ibuprofen or aspirin in pregnancy and risk of cerebral palsy in the child. Int J Epidemiol 47:121-130
Felix, Janine F; Joubert, Bonnie R; Baccarelli, Andrea A et al. (2018) Cohort Profile: Pregnancy And Childhood Epigenetics (PACE) Consortium. Int J Epidemiol 47:22-23u
Morken, N-H; Halland, F; DeRoo, L A et al. (2018) Offspring birthweight by gestational age and parental cardiovascular mortality: a population-based cohort study. BJOG 125:336-341
Jukic, Anne Marie Z; Baird, Donna D; Wilcox, Allen J et al. (2018) 25-Hydroxyvitamin D (25(OH)D) and biomarkers of ovarian reserve. Menopause 25:811-816
Forthun, Ingeborg; Strandberg-Larsen, Katrine; Wilcox, Allen J et al. (2018) Parental socioeconomic status and risk of cerebral palsy in the child: evidence from two Nordic population-based cohorts. Int J Epidemiol 47:1298-1306
Harmon, Quaker E; Basso, Olga; Weinberg, Clarice R et al. (2018) Two denominators for one numerator: the example of neonatal mortality. Eur J Epidemiol 33:523-530
Lie, Rolv Terje; Moster, Dag; Strand, Per et al. (2017) Prenatal exposure to Chernobyl fallout in Norway: neurological and developmental outcomes in a 25-year follow-up. Eur J Epidemiol 32:1065-1073
Magnus, Maria C; Ghaderi, Sara; Morken, Nils-Halvdan et al. (2017) Vanishing twin syndrome among ART singletons and pregnancy outcomes. Hum Reprod 32:2298-2304

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