Cent Eur J Public Health 2015, 23(2):128-134 | DOI: 10.21101/cejph.a3968

Birth Outcomes of Children Born to Women with Rheumatoid Arthritis

Éva Pósfai¹, Ferenc Bánhidy², Róbert Urbán³, Andrew E. Czeizel¹

¹ Foundation for the Community Control of Hereditary Diseases, Budapest, Hungary

² Second Department of Obstetrics and Gynaecology, School of Medicine, Semmelweis University, Budapest, Hungary

³ Department of Personality and Health Psychology, Eötvös Loránd University, Budapest, Hungary

Aim: The aim of the study was to estimate the possible risk of adverse birth outcomes of children born to mothers with rheumatoid arthritis (RA).

Methods: The dataset of large population-based Hungarian Case-Control Surveillance System of Congenital Abnormalities from 1980-1996 was evaluated including 22,843 cases with congenital abnormalities and 38,151 matched controls without any defect.

Results: 36 cases (0.16%) had mothers with RA, while 68 controls (0.18%) were born to mothers without RA (OR=0.9, 95% CI=0.3-1.6). A higher risk for congenital abnormalities in the offspring of pregnant women with RA was not found. In fact there was a larger mean birth weight in the newborns without any defect of mothers with RA and it was associated with a somewhat lower rate of low birth weight.

Conclusion: RA seems to have a beneficial effect not only for pregnant women but for their foetuses as well.

Keywords: rheumatoid arthritis, pregnancy, congenital abnormalities, birth weight, preterm birth, population-based case-control study

Received: October 18, 2013; Revised: January 22, 2015; Accepted: January 22, 2015; Published: June 1, 2015  Show citation