Study investigates associations of prenatal maternal factors with ROP
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Prenatal maternal factors such as socioeconomic status, smoking and chorioamnionitis were found in a study to be associated with the risk for retinopathy of prematurity in preterm infants.
Prenatal maternal variables have not typically been considered as risk factors for ROP development, and yet there is evidence to support a prenatal phase in ROP pathogenesis. A study conducted at the University of California, Los Angeles, included 236 mother-infant dyads in which infants were born at 22 to 30 weeks gestational age and referred for ROP screening. Maternal sociodemographic information, maternal and neonatal comorbidities, and pregnancy complications were explored as potential risk factors.
Medicaid insurance, chorioamnionitis and smoking during pregnancy were found to be correlated with the risk for any stage ROP. The first two remained statistically significant as independent risk factors after adjustment for potential confounders.
Because Medicaid eligibility is based on financial needs, “Medicaid insurance may be a surrogate parameter for low income status or socioeconomic disadvantage,” the authors wrote. As far as smoking is concerned, several direct and indirect mechanisms for the association with ROP were proposed in previous studies. Although adjustment for potential confounders resulted in a loss of statistical significance, the risk remained threefold higher for infants with smoking vs. non-smoking mothers.
“The results of our current study, if validated, would lend credence to the importance of smoking cessation counseling for pregnant women,” the authors wrote.
“These results provide additional evidence suggesting that ROP risk is influenced by prenatal events. Maternal sociodemographic characteristics, social behaviors and comorbidities may all contribute to this risk, and physicians should consider these prenatal factors alongside infant comorbidities and hospital course when characterizing infants as high risk for ROP,” they wrote.
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