ArticlePeerJ2019
Stability of the vaginal, oral, and gut microbiota across pregnancy among African American women: the effect of socioeconomic status and antibiotic exposure.
Article in PeerJ, 2019. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 32 papers, 1 of them a synthesis that pooled it.
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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.
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Who cites it
32 citing papers in PubMed, 1 synthesis or guideline pooled it.
- Oral microflora and pregnancy: a systematic review and meta-analysis.Scientific reports · 2021Pooled it
- The cervicovaginal gut microbiota axis as a key determinant of systemic physiology.Gut microbes · 2026Review
- Parental microbiome programming of early-life neurodevelopment: multi-niche contributions through the microbiome-gut-brain axis.Gut microbes · 2026Review
- Vaginal microbiome composition in pregnant and non-pregnant women: community structure, population variation, clinical impact, and metagenomics approaches.Infection and immunity · 2026Review
- Underexplored maternal microbiomes: immune, metabolic, and microbial pathways shaping pregnancy outcomes.Infection and immunity · 2026Review
- Microbiome alterations in healthy pregnancy and pregnancy disorders in association with autoimmune diseases.Folia microbiologica · 2026Review
- Developmental ecology of the infant oral ecosystem: a framework for early childhood caries.Frontiers in oral health · 2026Review
- Vaginal Lactobacillus crispatus in early pregnancy associates with favorable gestational outcomes in a Japanese maternal-neonatal microbiome cohort.Nature communications · 2025Article
- Microbiome-Maternal Tract Interactions in Women with Recurrent Implantation Failure.Microorganisms · 2025Review
- Body site-specific micro- and lactobiota in genitourinary infections during pregnancy.Frontiers in cellular and infection microbiology · 2025Article
- Bacteriocin diversity, function, discovery and application as antimicrobials.Nature reviews. Microbiology · 2024Review
- Women Skin Microbiota Modifications during Pregnancy.Microorganisms · 2024Article
- Potential roles of the interactions between gut microbiota and metabolites in LPS-induced intrauterine inflammation (IUI) and associated preterm birth (PTB).Journal of translational medicine · 2024Article
- Maternal gut microbiota in the health of mothers and offspring: from the perspective of immunology.Frontiers in immunology · 2024Review
- Gut microbiota in the short-beaked echidna (Tachyglossus Aculeatus) shows stability across gestation.MicrobiologyOpen · 2023Article
- The Dynamic Changes in the Composition and Diversity of Vaginal Microbiota in Women of Different Pregnancy Periods.Microorganisms · 2023Article
- A Higher Abundance ofMicroorganisms · 2023Article
- Microbiome Changes in Pregnancy Disorders.Antioxidants (Basel, Switzerland) · 2023Review
- Article
- Individuality and ethnicity eclipse a short-term dietary intervention in shaping microbiomes and viromes.PLoS biology · 2022Article
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
12 authors.
Funding
Abstract
objectiveA growing body of research has investigated the human microbiota and pregnancy outcomes, especially preterm birth. Most studies of the prenatal microbiota have focused on the vagina, with fewer investigating other body sites during pregnancy. Although pregnancy involves profound hormonal, immunological and metabolic changes, few studies have investigated either shifts in microbiota composition across pregnancy at different body sites or variation in composition at any site that may be explained by maternal characteristics. The purpose of this study was to investigate: (1) the stability of the vaginal, oral, and gut microbiota from early (8-14 weeks) through later (24-30 weeks) pregnancy among African American women according to measures of socioeconomic status, accounting for prenatal antibiotic use; (2) whether measures of socioeconomic status are associated with changes in microbiota composition over pregnancy; and (3) whether exposure to prenatal antibiotics mediate any observed associations between measures of socioeconomic status and stability of the vaginal, oral, and gut microbiota across pregnancy.
methodsWe used paired vaginal, oral, or gut samples available for 16S rRNA gene sequencing from two time points in pregnancy (8-14 and 24-30 weeks) to compare within-woman changes in measures of alpha diversity (Shannon and Chao1) and beta-diversity (Bray-Curtis dissimilarity) among pregnant African American women (
resultsFor the oral and gut microbiota, there were no significant associations between measures of socioeconomic status or prenatal antibiotic use and change in Shannon or Chao1 diversity. For the vaginal microbiota, low level of education (high school or less) was associated with an increase in Shannon and Chao1 diversity over pregnancy, with minimal attenuation when controlling for prenatal antibiotic use. Conversely, for within-woman Bray-Curtis dissimilarity for early compared to later pregnancy, low level of education and prenatal antibiotics were associated with greater dissimilarity for the oral and gut sites, with minimal attenuation when controlling for prenatal antibiotics, and no difference in dissimilarity for the vaginal site.
conclusionsMeasures of maternal socioeconomic status are variably associated with changes in diversity across pregnancy for the vaginal, oral, and gut microbiota, with minimal attenuation by prenatal antibiotic exposure. Studies that evaluate stability of the microbiota across pregnancy in association with health outcomes themselves associated with socioeconomic status (such as preterm birth) should incorporate measures of socioeconomic status to avoid finding spurious relationships.
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