ArticleScientific reports2018
Association of assisted reproductive technology and multiple pregnancies with the risks of birth defects and stillbirth: A retrospective cohort study.
Article in Scientific reports, 2018. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 23 papers, 1 of them a synthesis that pooled it.
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Who cites it
23 citing papers in PubMed, 1 synthesis or guideline pooled it, 52 citations in OpenAlex.
- Congenital anomalies observed in children conceived through assisted reproductive technology-a systematic review and meta-analysis.Journal of assisted reproduction and genetics · 2025Pooled it
- Effects of assisted reproductive techniques on offspring cardiovascular health: a systematic review and meta-analysis.Journal of assisted reproduction and genetics · 2026Review
- Association of combined folic acid and progesterone use with congenital malformations in women with vaginal bleeding during early pregnancy: a multicenter cohort study.European journal of medical research · 2025Article
- Does the risk of neurodevelopment disorders in children differ with different ART treatments? A systematic review and meta-analysis.Pakistan journal of medical sciences · 2025Article
- Stillbirth rate trends across 25 European countries between 2010 and 2021: the contribution of maternal age and multiplicity.European journal of public health · 2025Article
- Effect of blastomere cell number on ART outcome of fresh single day 3 embryo transfer.BMC pregnancy and childbirth · 2024Article
- Season, household registry and isolated birth defects: a population-based case-control study in Danyang, China.International health · 2024Article
- The impact of China's universal two-child policy on total, preterm, and multiple births: a nationwide interrupted time-series analysis.BMC public health · 2024Article
- Association between abnormal uterine artery pulsatility index and the risk of fetal congenital heart defects: a hospital-based cohort study.Scientific reports · 2023Article
- The effect of China's many-child policy on the number of births and the prevalence of serious teratogenic and disabling defects in Hunan Province.BMC public health · 2023Observational
- Initiation and duration of folic acid supplementation in preventing congenital malformations.BMC medicine · 2023Article
- Intimate partner violence and its association with skilled birth attendance among women in Nigeria: evidence from the Nigeria Demographic and Health Surveys.BMC pregnancy and childbirth · 2022Article
- Temporal trends and adverse perinatal outcomes of twin pregnancies at differing gestational ages: an observational study from China between 2012-2020.BMC pregnancy and childbirth · 2022Observational
- Correlation between assisted reproductive technology-induced pregnancy and fetal cardiac anomalies.JBRA assisted reproduction · 2022Article
- Women's attitudes towards negotiating safe sexual practices in Nigeria: Do family structure and decision-making autonomy play a role?BMC women's health · 2022Article
- Association between Maternal Thyroxine and Risk of Fetal Congenital Heart Defects: A Hospital-Based Cohort Study.International journal of endocrinology · 2022Article
- The value of transvaginal 4-dimensional hysterosalpingo-contrast sonography in predicting the necessity of assisted reproductive technology for women with tubal factor infertility.Quantitative imaging in medicine and surgery · 2021Article
- Birth defects surveillance after assisted reproductive technology in Beijing: a whole of population-based cohort study.BMJ open · 2021Article
- Abnormal placental perfusion and the risk of stillbirth: a hospital-based retrospective cohort study.BMC pregnancy and childbirth · 2021Article
- Nanotechnology in reproductive medicine: Opportunities for clinical translation.Clinical and experimental reproductive medicine · 2020Article
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
4 authors at 1 institution in 1 country.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
Assisted reproductive technology (ART) has been widely used among women with infertility. However, the association of ART with birth defects and stillbirth remains controversial and has rarely been reported in China. A retrospective cohort study of 112,043 pregnant women and 114,522 newborns from 2006 to 2016 was performed. Compared to spontaneously conceived infants, ART-conceived infants had a higher likelihood of any birth defect, with an adjusted odds ratio (OR) of 2.10 (95% confidence interval, 1.63-2.69). ART-conceived infants also had a significantly increased risk for subcategories of cardiovascular, musculoskeletal, urogenital, gastrointestinal, and respiratory defects. Most (62.25%) of the effect of ART on birth defects was a direct effect, whereas 37.75% of the effect of ART on birth defects was due to multiple pregnancies (i.e., an indirect effect). Compared with naturally conceived singletons, the combined effect of ART and twins on the risk of birth defects was lower than that of the sum of the individual effects of ART and twins on the risk of birth defects, with an adjusted OR of 0.54 (0.32-0.92). These findings clearly show that ART is associated with an increased risk of birth defects in China and may provide guidance to couples and obstetricians in selecting numbers of pregnancies and in identifying organs at a high risk of birth defects.
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