Abstract
Purpose
This study aims to investigate the effect of health advice given healthcare professionals to pregnant women in hospital about avoiding the wearing of tight clothing around the trunk in order to reduce the risk of premature birth.
Methods
This was a retrospective study of medical records from an inpatient ward at a national medical center in Tokyo, Japan. Participants were women who had been admitted for threatened miscarriage or premature birth from the 1 April 2011 to 31 March 2013. Of the 230 women admitted during this period, only 208 women met the criteria of this study were included in the study. The intervention group was defined as those women who received advice from healthcare providers to avoid wearing constrictive clothing around the trunk, and the control group was defined as those women who received no such advice. All data for analysis was transcribed from medical records.
Results
The mean age of all participants was 34.7 years (SD: 5.0). Of the 208 participants, 103 (49.8%) were multiparas and 150 (72.1%) were allocated to the intervention group. The results of bivariate analysis showed that both premature birth at <34 weeks (p=0.077) and premature birth at <37 weeks (p=0.875) had no significant difference between the two groups. After adjusting for basic characteristics and potential confounders such as socioeconomic status and past medical history, the adjusted odds ratio for premature birth at 34 weeks gestation was significantly lower in the intervention group (adjusted odds ratio (AOR): 0.15, 95% CI: 0.04-0.57) compared with the control group, however there was no association with premature birth at 37 weeks (AOR: 0.67, 95% CI: 0.28-1.60).
Conclusion
The findings of this study showed that advice from healthcare providers to avoid wearing constrictive clothing around the trunk might have the potential to reduce the risk of premature birth at <34 weeks. This study has several limitations, including no randomization, and a small sample size due to the preliminary nature of the survey. A well-designed randomized controlled trial is needed to verify the effectiveness of this intervention.
