Abstract
Background: Previous studies have suggested that maternal stress could increase the risk of some adverse pregnancy outcomes but evidence on congenital heart disease (CHD) is limited. We aimed to explore the association between maternal exposure to life events during pregnancy and CHD in offspring.Methods: The data was based on an unmatched case-control study about CHD conducted in Shaanxi province of China from 2014 to 2016. We included 2280 subjects, 699 in case group and 1581 in control group. The life events were assessed by Life Events Scale for Pregnant Women, and were divided into positive and negative events for synchronous analysis. A directed acyclic graph was drawn to screen the confounders. Logistic regression was employed to estimate odds ratio and 95% confidence interval for the effects of life events on CHD.Results: With confounders adjusted, pregnant women with positive events experienced had 62% lower odds of CHD in offspring than those without (OR =0.38, 95%CI: 0.30~0.48). Those exposed to negative events were 1.64 times odds to have CHD that of those without (OR =1.64, 95%CI: 1.31~2.05). The both effects showed dose-response association. Besides, positive events could weaken the risk impact of negative events on CHD.Conclusion: It may suggest that maternal exposure to negative life events could increase the risk of CHD in offspring, while experiencing positive events could play a potential protective role.
Maternal exposure to arsenic in drinking water and risk of congenital heart disease in the offspring
