ArticlePaediatric and perinatal epidemiology2014
Validity of birth certificate-derived maternal weight data.
Article in Paediatric and perinatal epidemiology, 2014. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 64 papers.
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Who cites it
64 citing papers in PubMed.
- Evaluation of antenatal risk factors for postpartum depression: a secondary cohort analysis of the cluster-randomised GeliS trial.BMC medicine · 2020Trial
- Reliability of Self-Reported Maternal Health and Mother-Infant Outcome Data in Web-Based Questionnaires.Drug safety · 2026Article
- Environmental Risk and Adverse Perinatal Health Indicators in New York City: A Geospatial Hotspot Analysis.Journal of urban health : bulletin of the New York Academy of Medicine · 2026Article
- Trends in Gestational Weight Gain From 2007 to 2019: A Prospective Cohort Study.Paediatric and perinatal epidemiology · 2026Article
- Social Inequities in Cardiovascular Disease Risk Factors at Multiple Levels Persist Among Mothers in Texas.International journal of environmental research and public health · 2025Article
- Prospective transitions in hemoglobin A1c following gestational diabetes using multistate Markov models.American journal of epidemiology · 2025Article
- Gestational weight gain and increased risk of cesarean delivery across body mass index categories.AJOG global reports · 2025Article
- The Causal Effect of Increasing Area-Level Income on Birth Outcomes and Pregnancy-Related Health: Estimates From the Marcellus Shale Boom Economy.Demography · 2024Article
- Association of Prepregnancy Cardiometabolic Health With Hypertensive Disorders of Pregnancy Among Historically Underrepresented Groups in the United States.Journal of the American Heart Association · 2024Article
- Association of Prepregnancy Cardiometabolic Factors With Gestational Diabetes Among Asian Populations in the United States.JACC. Asia · 2024Article
- Obesity, Twin Pregnancy, and the Role of Assisted Reproductive Technology.JAMA network open · 2024Article
- Non-linear associations of maternal pre-pregnancy body mass index with risk of stillbirth, infant, and neonatal mortality in over 28 million births in the USA: a retrospective cohort study.EClinicalMedicine · 2023Article
- Misclassification of firearm-related violent crime in criminal legal system records: challenges and opportunities.Injury epidemiology · 2023Article
- Prepregnancy body mass index and gestational diabetes mellitus across Asian and Pacific Islander subgroups in California.AJOG global reports · 2023Article
- Association of Prepregnancy Body Mass Index With Risk of Severe Maternal Morbidity and Mortality Among Medicaid Beneficiaries.JAMA network open · 2022Article
- Association of Gestational Weight Gain With Infant Morbidity and Mortality in the United States.JAMA network open · 2021Article
- Gestational weight gain and adverse pregnancy outcomes by pre-pregnancy BMI category in women with chronic hypertension: A cohort study.Pregnancy hypertension · 2021Article
- Gestational Weight Gain and Long-term Maternal Obesity Risk: A Multiple-Bias Analysis.Epidemiology (Cambridge, Mass.) · 2021Article
- Agreement between self-reported pre-pregnancy weight and measured first-trimester weight in Brazilian women.BMC pregnancy and childbirth · 2020Article
- Defining maternal obesity in studies of birth outcomes: Comparing ICD-9 codes at delivery and measures on the birth certificate.Paediatric and perinatal epidemiology · 2020Article
4 more citing papers are in PubMed but not listed here.
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Authors and funding
7 authors.
Funding
Abstract
backgroundStudies using vital records-based maternal weight data have become more common, but the validity of these data is uncertain.
methodsWe evaluated the accuracy of prepregnancy body mass index (BMI) and gestational weight gain (GWG) reported on birth certificates using medical record data in 1204 births at a teaching hospital in Pennsylvania from 2003 to 2010. Deliveries at this hospital were representative of births statewide with respect to BMI, GWG, race/ethnicity, and preterm birth. Forty-eight strata were created by simultaneous stratification on prepregnancy BMI (underweight, normal weight/overweight, obese class 1, obese classes 2 and 3), GWG (<20th, 20-80th, >80th percentile), race/ethnicity (non-Hispanic white, non-Hispanic black), and gestational age (term, preterm).
resultsThe agreement of birth certificate-derived prepregnancy BMI category with medical record BMI category was highest in the normal weight/overweight and obese class 2 and 3 groups. Agreement varied from 52% to 100% across racial/ethnic and gestational age strata. GWG category from the birth registry agreed with medical records for 41-83% of deliveries, and agreement tended to be the poorest for very low and very high GWG. The misclassification of GWG was driven by errors in reported prepregnancy weight rather than maternal weight at delivery, and its magnitude depended on prepregnancy BMI category and gestational age at delivery.
conclusionsMaternal weight data, particularly at the extremes, are poorly reported on birth certificates. Investigators should devote resources to well-designed validation studies, the results of which can be used to adjust for measurement errors by bias analysis.
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