ArticleBMC pregnancy and childbirth2019
Prenatal maternal stress and birth outcomes in rural Ghana: sex-specific associations.
Article in BMC pregnancy and childbirth, 2019. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. It is linked to trial NCT01335490 (Intervening to Improve Birth Weight and Infant Respiratory Health in Rural Ghana), which is not on this map. Cited by 19 papers.
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The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Intervening to Improve Birth Weight and Infant Respiratory Health in Rural Ghana
Who cites it
19 citing papers in PubMed, 35 citations in OpenAlex.
- Heat exposure and maternal stress: evidence from the GRAPHS pregnancy cohort in Ghana.Environmental research, health : ERH · 2026Article
- Prenatal Harmattan exposure and birth size: identifying sensitive windows in pregnancy.Frontiers in global women's health · 2026Article
- Revealed Comparative Disadvantage of Infants: Exposure to NAFTA and Birth Outcomes.Journal of international economics · 2025Article
- Prenatal maternal PTSD as a risk factor for offspring ADHD: A register-based Swedish cohort study of 553 766 children and their mothers.European psychiatry : the journal of the Association of European Psychiatrists · 2024Article
- Women's preconception psychological stress and birth outcomes in a fertility clinic: the EARTH study.Frontiers in global women's health · 2024Article
- Early Mid-pregnancy Blood-Based Proteins as Possible Biomarkers of Increased Infant Birth Size in Sex-Stratified Analyses.Reproductive sciences (Thousand Oaks, Calif.) · 2023Article
- Nutrition, stress, and healthcare use during pregnancy are associated with low birth weight: evidence from a case-control study in West Ethiopia.Frontiers in public health · 2023Article
- Influence of perinatal distress on adverse birth outcomes: A prospective study in the Tigray region, northern Ethiopia.PloS one · 2023Article
- Maternal childhood trauma is associated with offspring body size during the first year of life.Scientific reports · 2022Article
- Symptoms of maternal psychological distress during pregnancy: sex-specific effects for neonatal morbidity.Journal of perinatal medicine · 2022Article
- Maternal Stress and Neonatal Nutrition during the COVID-19 Era.Infectious diseases & clinical microbiology · 2022Article
- Associations between combined exposure to environmental hazards and social stressors at the neighborhood level and individual perinatal outcomes in the ECHO-wide cohort.Health & place · 2022Article
- Foeto-maternal complications associated with low birth weight: A prospective multicenter study in northern Ghana.PloS one · 2022Article
- Obstetric risk in pregnancy interacts with hair cortisone levels to reduce gestational length.Frontiers in global women's health · 2022Article
- Impact of prenatal maternal psychological distress on fetal biometric parameters in household air pollution-exposed Nigerian women.PloS one · 2022Article
- Anxiety and depressive symptoms in pregnancy predict low birth weight differentially in male and female infants-findings from an urban pregnancy cohort in India.Social psychiatry and psychiatric epidemiology · 2021Article
- Conflict violence reduction and pregnancy outcomes: A regression discontinuity design in Colombia.PLoS medicine · 2021Article
- Association of Maternal Dietary Patterns With Birth Weight and the Mediation of Gestational Weight Gain: A Prospective Birth Cohort.Frontiers in nutrition · 2021Article
- Does sex matter? Association of fetal sex and parental age with pregnancy outcomes in Taiwan: a cohort study.BMC pregnancy and childbirth · 2020Article
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
14 authors at 7 institutions in 3 countries.
Funding
Abstract
backgroundIn developed countries, prenatal maternal stress has been associated with poor fetal growth, however this has not been evaluated in rural sub-Saharan Africa. We evaluated the effect of prenatal maternal stress on fetal growth and birth outcomes in rural Ghana.
methodsLeveraging a prospective, rural Ghanaian birth cohort, we ascertained prenatal maternal negative life events, categorized scores as 0-2 (low stress; referent), 3-5 (moderate), and > 5 (high) among 353 pregnant women in the Kintampo North Municipality and Kintampo South District located within the middle belt of Ghana. We employed linear regression to determine associations between prenatal maternal stress and infant birth weight, head circumference, and length. We additionally examined associations between prenatal maternal stress and adverse birth outcome, including low birth weight, small for gestational age, or stillbirth. Effect modification by infant sex was examined.
resultsIn all children, high prenatal maternal stress was associated with reduced birth length (β = - 0.91, p = 0.04; p-value for trend = 0.04). Among girls, moderate and high prenatal maternal stress was associated with reduced birth weight (β = - 0.16, p = 0.02; β = - 0.18, p = 0.04 respectively; p-value for trend = 0.04) and head circumference (β = - 0.66, p = 0.05; β = - 1.02, p = 0.01 respectively; p-value for trend = 0.01). In girls, high prenatal stress increased odds of any adverse birth outcome (OR 2.41, 95% CI 1.01-5.75; p for interaction = 0.04). Sex-specific analyses did not demonstrate significant effects in boys.
conclusionsAll infants, but especially girls, were vulnerable to effects of prenatal maternal stress on birth outcomes. Understanding risk factors for impaired fetal growth may help develop preventative public health strategies.
trial registrationNCT01335490 (prospective registration). Date of Registration: April 14, 2011. Status of Registration: Completed.
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