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Partner change, birth interval and risk of pre‐eclampsia: a paradoxical triangle
Author(s) -
Zhang Jun
Publication year - 2007
Publication title -
paediatric and perinatal epidemiology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.667
H-Index - 88
eISSN - 1365-3016
pISSN - 0269-5022
DOI - 10.1111/j.1365-3016.2007.00835.x
Subject(s) - medicine , eclampsia , confounding , pregnancy , obstetrics , epidemiology , interval (graph theory) , demography , genetics , mathematics , combinatorics , sociology , biology
Summary Immunology has been hypothesised to play a critical role in the development of pre‐eclampsia. A number of epidemiological studies have shown that multiparous women who changed partner had an increased risk of pre‐eclampsia in the following pregnancy compared with multiparous women with the same partner. However, partner change is often associated with a long birth interval. Two recent papers using data from the same birth registry reported that, after controlling for birth interval, partner change was associated with a reduced risk of pre‐eclampsia. Based on a causal diagram, the author argues conceptually that birth interval is not a confounder but more likely to be a collider. Controlling for or stratifying birth interval in the association between partner change and risk of pre‐eclampsia could be inappropriate and may have produced a spurious association.