Olga Basso

..In this study, we aimed at quantifying the risk of neonatal death as a function of a baby's failure to fulfil its biologic growth potential across the whole distribution of birth weight...

..If such rare factors underlie the association of birth weight with mortality, it would have broad implications for the study of fetal growth restriction and birth weight, and for the prevention of infant mortality...

..Decreased fecundity has been hypothesized as one of the causes of the widespread decline in twin rates in the 1960s and 1970s. The association between high fecundity and twinning is not, however, well documented...

..The issues discussed here by no means constitute an exhaustive list, but aim at providing an introduction for researchers interested in this topic...

..In predicting risk, it may be more informative to estimate smallness in relation to family norm (using the birth weight of an older sibling) rather than to use the standard "small-for-gestational-age" (SGA z-score) measure...

..It follows that the true gradient of mortality with birth weight would be weaker than what is observed, if indeed there is any true gradient at all...

..Advanced paternal age has been linked to early preterm delivery (before 32 weeks)...

..Even if individual contributions, including one published in this issue of Epidemiology, are of reasonable quality, all the above problems conspire to lower the credibility of this area of research...

..This practice has increased in recent decades, but its net effect on fetal and infant survival has not been assessed...

..Doing this may lead us in the wrong direction, as has likely happened in the case of birth weight in relation to infant survival...

..Women with recurrent pre-eclampsia or pre-eclampsia early in pregnancy reportedly have an increased long-term risk of CVD. Short stature is a risk factor for CVD but has rarely been examined in relation to pre-eclampsia...

..By using updated information, we assessed the frequencies of dizygotic (DZ) and monozygotic (MZ) twin deliveries as a function of infertility (TTP > 12 months), as well as infertility treatment...

..30, 4.69). The authors found that a long TTP was associated with preeclampsia, supporting the hypothesis that some factors delaying clinically recognized conception may also be in a causal pathway for preeclampsia...

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..Women having children with more than one man may have a higher risk of a pregnancy accelerating the diagnosis of MS but are probably not at an overall higher risk of MS...

..Nonright-handedness, particularly mixed-handedness, has been associated with a number of medical conditions. We examined whether handedness was associated with fecundity, measured by time to pregnancy...

..3 (age 25-29), 1.4 (age 35-39), 1.7 (age 40-44), 1.6 (age 45-49), and 2.1 (age 50+) (test for trend: P = 0.01). CONCLUSIONS: Risk of very preterm birth increases among older fathers, perhaps as a result of a paternal placental effect...

..Under plausible conditions, frank reversal of exposure-outcome associations can occur. When the purpose is causal inference, there are few settings in which adjustment for gestational age can be justified...

..The reproductive health of children born of infertile couples may be affected by infertility treatment or factors associated with infertility. We examined sexual maturation in children of parents with infertility...

..Animal studies have shown that in utero exposure to chemicals in tobacco smoke reduces female fertility, but epidemiological findings have been inconsistent...

..In this paper, we examine the impact that rare factors may have, at least in theory, on preterm mortality...

..Deaths among preterm births are presumably due to both immaturity and the conditions that cause preterm birth. Their relative contributions are unknown...

..Cola beverages, in particular, contain phosphoric acid and have been associated with urinary changes that promote kidney stones...

..To examine whether infertile couples (with a time to pregnancy of > 12 months), who conceive naturally or after treatment, give birth to children with an increased prevalence of congenital malformations...

..To examine the association between pesticide use during pregnancy and gestational diabetes mellitus (GDM) among wives of licensed pesticide applicators...

..Hypertensive disorders of pregnancy, including pregnancy-induced hypertension (PIH) and preeclampsia (PE), complicate 2-8% of pregnancies. Few studies have examined environmental risk factors in relation to these conditions...

..Fetal growth itself, determinants of fetal growth, or any unadjusted factors that correlate with fetal growth, could cause the association...

..The study shows that caution is needed when studying health effects of procreation with multiple partners...

..Little is known about the relative importance of genes and early environment in the etiology of febrile convulsions...

..To examine the association between infertility, with or without treatment, and fetal growth, as well as perinatal and infant mortality...

..The association could be caused by mutations of the gametes in men induced by biological or environmental factors...

..In conclusion, short gestational age, low birth weight, and intrauterine growth restriction are associated with an increased risk of epilepsy...

..The authors did not account for gestational length, a strong predictor of perinatal death...

..Numerous rare genetic conditions are known to influence fecundability in both males and females. It is less clear to what extent more subtle genetic differences influence fecundability on a population level...

..29). Further analyses showed no association with the dose and type of alcohol or with binge drinking. CONCLUSIONS: The study provides no support for a causal link between maternal alcohol intake during pregnancy and asthma in childhood...