BMJ Example-Case Control Study.pdfVIP

RESEARCH Association between maternal sleep practices and risk of late stillbirth: a case-control study 1 2 Tomasina Stacey, midwifery lecturer, PhD student, John M D Thompson, senior research fellow, Ed A 2 1 Mitchell, professor of child health research, Alec J Ekeroma, senior lecturer, obstetrics and gynaecology, Jane M Zuccollo, senior lecturer, perinatal pathology,3 Lesley M E McCowan, professor of obstetrics and gynaecology1 1Department of Obstetrics and ABSTRACT stillbirth.1 2 Stillbirth therefore remains an important Gynaecology, University of Objectives To determine whether snoring, sleep position, public health issue, with little change in its rate over Auckland, Private Bag 92019 2 3 Auckland 1142, New Zealand and other sleep practices in pregnant women are the past two decades. Many studies have examined 2 Department of Paediatrics, associated with risk of late stillbirth. risk factors for stillbirth, but they have often been University of Auckland, Auckland Design Prospective population based case-control study. population based retrospective studies4-6 that have 3Department of Obstetrics and Setting Auckland, New Zealand been unable to explore a broad range of potential risk Gynaecology, Wellington Medical Participants Cases: 155 women with a singleton late factors, in particular those relating to maternal lifestyle School, Wellington 6021, New Zealand stillbirth ≥28 weeks’ gestation without congenital and personal habits. Correspondence to: T Stacey abnormality born between July 2006 and June 2009 and Around a third of a person’s life is spent asleep, but t.stacey@auckland.ac.nz booked to deliver in Auckland. Controls: 310 women with there has been little research on the potential impact of Cite this as: BMJ 2011;342:d3403 single ongoing pregnancies and gestation matched to sleep practices on the developing fetus. Previous stu- doi:10.1136/bmj.d3403 that at which the stillbirth occurred. Multivariable logis