The Consequences of Preterm Birth in the Children of Mothers with Inflammatory Bowel Disease: A Nationwide Cohort Study.

Abstract

Introduction: Mothers with inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) are at increased risk of delivering their infants preterm. In the general population, chronic diseases in adulthood as well as increased morbidity and mortality are associated with being born preterm. We aimed to examine whether this was true for preterm versus full-term infants born to mothers with IBD.

Methods: This is an observational cohort study based on the Danish Health Registries. The study population comprised all live-born singleton children, born to mothers with IBD, during the study period of 1995 through 2016. We estimated the risk of selected chronic diseases in offspring born preterm to mothers with IBD. These included epilepsy, chronic lung disease and asthma, depression and bipolar affective disorder, autism spectrum disorders, schizophrenia/psychosis, attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder, and mental retardation/intellectual disabilities. We adjusted for relevant confounders.

Results: In all, 736 children were born preterm, and 9655 were born full-term to mothers with IBD. The median, 25th, and 75th percentiles of the follow-up time of the children were 11.1 (6.4, 16.3) years and 11.4 (7.3, 16.3) years for the full-term and preterm cohorts, respectively. There was a statistically significant increased risk of mental retardation/intellectual disabilities in preterm versus full-term children (aHR 2.15; 95% CI 1.07-4.36). We also found a non-significantly increased risk of epilepsy (1.11; 0.51-2.42), chronic lung disease and asthma (1.10; 0.76-1.60), schizophrenia/psychosis (1.17; 0.50-2.73), and attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder 1.15 (0.83-1.60).

Conclusion: Our study indicates the possibility of chronic health consequences in children born preterm to mothers with IBD.