INFANT AND MATERNAL OUTCOMES IN THE PREGNANCIES OF ASTHMATIC WOMEN

We examined the relationship between infant and maternal outcomes and asthma complicating pregnancy, using historical cohort analysis of sin gleton live deliveries in New Jersey hospitals between 1989 and 1992 ( n = 447,963). Subject mother-infant dyads were identified from linked birth certificate and maternal and newborn hospital claims data. Women with an International Classification of Diseases, Ninth Revision, Cli nical Modification (ICD-9-CM) diagnosis code (493) for asthma (n = 2,2 89) were compared with a fourfold larger randomly selected control sam ple (n = 9,156) from the remaining pool of women. After controlling fo r the effects of important confounding variables, maternal asthma was associated with the following adverse infant outcomes: preterm infant (odds ratio [OR] = 1.36; 95% confidence interval [CI], 1.18 to 1.55), low birth weight (OR = 1.32; 95% CI, 1.10 to 1.58), small-for-gestatio nal age (OR = 1.26; 95% CI, 1.10 to 1.45), congenital anomalies (OR = 1.37; 95% CI, 1.12 to 1.68), and increased infant hospital length of s tay (OR = 1.44; 95% CI, 1.25 to 1.65). The adverse maternal outcomes a ssociated with maternal asthma were: pre-eclampsia (OR = 2.18; 95% CI, 1.68 to 2.83), placenta previa (OR = 1.71; 95% CI, 1.05 to 2.79), ces arean delivery (OR = 1.62; 95% CI, 1.46 to 1.80), and increased matern al hospital length of stay (OR = 1.86; 95% CI, 1.60 to 2.15). The resu lts emphasize the need for maternal asthma to be added to the list of conditions that increase the risk of adverse pregnancy outcomes.