lack of association of health behaviors and psychosocial characteristics with preterm birth

Preterm birth is the leading pregnancy outcome associated with perinatal morbidity and mortality and remains difficult to prevent. There is evidence that some modifiable maternal health characteristics may influence the risk of preterm birth. The aim of our study just published in Maternal and Child Health Journal was to investigate the relationships of self-reported maternal health behaviour and psychological characteristics in nulliparous women with spontaneous preterm birth in prenatal primary care. We used data from the nationwide DELIVER multicentre cohort study, which was designed to examine perinatal primary care in the Netherlands. In our study, consisting of 2768 nulliparous women, we estimated the relationships of various self-reported health behaviours (smoking, alcohol consumption, folic acid supplementation, daily fruit, daily fresh vegetables, daily hot meal and daily breakfast consumption) and psychological characteristics (anxious/depressed mood and health control beliefs) with spontaneous preterm birth.
Of all variables investigated, low health control beliefs was the sole characteristic significantly associated with spontaneous preterm birth.