SynthesisMaternal and child health journal2021
Total Adverse Childhood Experiences and Preterm Birth: A Systematic Review.
Synthesis in Maternal and child health journal, 2021. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 17 papers, 1 of them a synthesis that pooled it.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
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.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
17 citing papers in PubMed, 1 synthesis or guideline pooled it, 40 citations in OpenAlex.
- Pooled it
- Exploring trauma-informed prenatal care preferences through diverse pregnant voices.BMC health services research · 2025Trial
- Psychosocial stressors as modifiers of the associations between well-studied and understudied chemicals and birth outcomes in the ECHO Cohort.Environmental pollution (Barking, Essex : 1987) · 2026Article
- High Philadelphia Adverse Childhood Experiences Survey Score Is Associated With Spontaneous Preterm Birth Among Black Pregnant Individuals: A Secondary Analysis of a Prospective Cohort.BJOG : an international journal of obstetrics and gynaecology · 2025Observational
- The Relationship Between Early Term Birth and the Risk of Later Childhood Mental Disorders Within a Pregnancy Cohort.Child psychiatry and human development · 2025Article
- Stress-induced developmental plasticity and spontaneous preterm birth: A justice-oriented eco-evo-devo review.European journal of obstetrics & gynecology and reproductive biology: X · 2025Review
- Article
- Evaluation of an Embedded Health Psychologist Intervention for Obstetric Patients With Adverse Childhood Experiences.The Permanente journal · 2024Article
- Defining and distinguishing early life stress, trauma, adversity, toxic and chronic stress and allostatic load: a descriptive review.Scandinavian journal of public health · 2024Review
- The Association Between Adverse Childhood Experiences and Preterm Delivery: A Latent Class Approach.Journal of women's health (2002) · 2024Article
- Childhood maltreatment and health in the UK Biobank: triangulation of outcome-wide and polygenic risk score analyses.BMC medicine · 2024Article
- Adverse Childhood Experiences: Associations with a Blunted Cortisol Stress Response During Pregnancy.Maternal and child health journal · 2023Article
- Associations of Adverse Childhood Experiences With Pregnancy and Infant Health.American journal of preventive medicine · 2023Article
- Higher Stress in Oncology Patients is Associated With Cognitive and Evening Physical Fatigue Severity.Journal of pain and symptom management · 2023Article
- Maternal adverse childhood experiences and their association with preterm birth: secondary analysis of data from universal health visiting.BMC pregnancy and childbirth · 2022Article
- The shared mother-child epigenetic signature of neglect is related to maternal adverse events.Frontiers in physiology · 2022Article
- Article
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
6 authors at 3 institutions in 2 countries.
Funding
Abstract
introductionTotal adverse childhood experiences (ACEs) are gaining prominence as a risk factor for preterm birth (PTB). The emerging literature examining this relationship reports inconsistent findings. The purpose of this systematic review was to summarize the available evidence exploring whether total ACEs predict PTB.
methodsA total of 386 studies were returned from searches on PubMed, PsycINFO, and Cumulative Index to Nursing and Allied Health Literature (CINAHL). Nine studies were selected for final analysis and synthesis based on reporting of total ACEs and preterm birth gestational weeks or standard definition of birth before 37 weeks' gestational age. A systematic review rather than meta-analysis was selected to present the findings given the clinical and methodological (e.g., sample studied, measurement tools) heterogeneity of the retrieved studies and pregnancy outcomes measured.
resultsThe nine studies report on birth outcomes for 6,087 women from a range of sociodemographic and ethnic backgrounds. Despite a wide range of study designs, measurement tools, and timings of ACEs exposure across studies, seven of the nine included studies showed significant relationships between ACEs and PTB.
conclusionSystematic review of the literature suggests that total ACEs are associated with PTB and provides an overview on the known associations. However, to date only nine studies have assessed this link, and more studies are needed, to explore the associations between ACEs and PTB using appropriate and valid instruments and doing so among more diverse populations. Future research should also explore possible biological mechanisms (allostatic load), and moderating and mediating variables.
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What OpenQuestion holds
Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.