Skip to main content

Advertisement

SpringerLink
Log in

Educational Attainment of Grandmothers and Preterm Birth in Grandchildren

  • Published:
Maternal and Child Health Journal Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

Background

Maternal education has been shown repeatedly to be inversely associated with preterm birth. Both preterm birth and educational level of families are correlated across generations, but it is not clear if educational level of grandparents affects the risk of preterm delivery of their grandchildren, and, if so, if the association with grandmother’s education is independent of mother’s education.

Methods

We used New Jersey birth certificates to create a transgenerational dataset to examine the effect of grandmother’s education on risk of PTB in White, Black and Hispanic grandchildren. We matched birth certificates of girls born in 1979-1983 to mothers listed on NJ birth certificates for the years 1999–2011. Thus, grandmothers were the women delivering in 1979–1983, and mothers were those born to the grandmothers who in turn delivered grandchildren in 1999–2011. We performed descriptive tabulations and multivariate logistic regression to develop risk estimates.

Results

Overall, maternal education was associated inversely with PTB in each of the demographic groups. There was a substantial inter-generational increase in education between grandmothers and mothers in each group, which was most striking in Hispanics After adjusting for maternal age and education, grandmother’s education continued to be associated with preterm birth of her grandchildren.

Conclusions

Grandmother’s education was an additional, independent predictor of PTB in her grandchildren. This result supports the idea that mother’s childhood and preconception socioeconomic environment, including the educational level of her childhood household affect her reproductive health.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this article

Log in via an institution

Price excludes VAT (USA)
Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout.

Instant access to the full article PDF.

Institutional subscriptions

Fig. 1
Fig. 2

Similar content being viewed by others

References

  • Ananth, C. V. (2007). Menstrual versus clinical estimate of gestational age dating in the United States: Temporal trends and variability in indices of perinatal outcomes. Paediatric and Perinatal Epidemiology, 21, 22–30.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Branum, A. M., & Schoendorf, K. C. (2002). Changing patterns of low birthweight and preterm birth in the United States, 1981–98. Paediatric and Perinatal Epidemiology, 16(1), 8–15.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Bruckner, T. A., Kane, J. B., & Gailey, S. (2019). Strong upward neighborhood mobility and preterm birth: A matched-sibling design approach. Annals of Epidemiology, 36, 48–54.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Campbell, K., Deck, D., Cox, A., & Broderick, C. (2006). The Link King user manual. The Link King website. Retrieved April 1, 2008, from www.the-link-king.com

  • Campbell, K., Deck, D., & Krupski, A. (2008). Record linkage software in the public domain. The Link King website: www.the-link-king.com

  • Castrillio, S. M., Rankin, K. M., David, R. J., & Collins, J. W. (2014). Small-for-gestational age and preterm birth across generations: A population-based study of Illinois births. Maternal and Child Health Journal, 18(10), 2456–2464.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Crimmins, E. M., Kim, J. K., Alley, D. E., Karlamangla, A., & Seeman, T. (2007). Hispanic paradox in biological risk profiles. American Journal of Public Health, 97(7), 1305–1310.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Demissie, K., Rhoads, G. G., Ananth, C. V., Alexander, G. R., Kramer, M. S., Kogan, M. D., & Joseph, K. S. (2001). Trends in preterm birth and neonatal mortality among blacks and whites in the United States from 1989 to 1997. American Journal of Epidemiology, 154(4), 307–315.

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Dodgeon, B., Patalay, P., Ploubidis, G. B., & Wiggins, R. D. (2020). Exploring the role of early-life circumstances, abilities and achievements on well-being at age 50 years: Evidence from the 1958 British birth cohort study. BMJ Open, 10(2). https://doi.org/10.1136/bmjopen-2019-031416

  • Dorner, R. A., Rankin, K. M., & Collins, J. W. (2017). Early preterm birth across generations among whites and African-Americans: A population-based study. Maternal and Child Health Journal, 21(11), 2061–2067.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Francois, L. N., Yang, J., Baer, R. J., Chung, P. J., Jelliffe-Pawlowski, L. L., & Coker, T. R. (2019). Cross-generational contributors to preterm birth in California: singletons based on race/ethnicity. American Journal of Perinatology, 36(04), 383–392.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Gavin, A. R., Nurius, P., & Logan-Greene, P. (2012). Mediators of adverse birth outcomes among socially disadvantaged women. Journal of Women’s Health, 21(6), 634–642.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Geronimus, A. T., Hicken, M., Keene, D., & Bound, J. (2006). “Weathering” and age patterns of allostatic load scores among blacks and whites in the United States. American Journal of Public Health, 96(5), 826–833.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Kramer, M. R., & Hogue, C. R. (2009). What causes racial disparities in very preterm birth? A biosocial perspective. Epidemiologic Reviews, 31(1), 84–98.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Kramer, M. S., McLean, F. H., Boyd, M. E., & Usher, R. H. (1988). The validity of gestational age estimation by menstrual dating in term, preterm, and postterm gestations. JAMA, 260(22), 3306–3308.

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Liu, L., Johnson, H. L., Cousens, S., Perin, J., Scott, S., Lawn, J. E., … Mathers C. (2012). Global, regional, and national causes of child mortality: An updated systematic analysis for 2010 with time trends since 2000. The Lancet, 379(9832), 2151–2161.

  • Love, C., David, R. J., Rankin, K. M., & Collins, J. W., Jr. (2010). Exploring weathering: Effects of lifelong economic environment and maternal age on low birth weight, small for gestational age, and preterm birth in African-American and white women. American Journal of Epidemiology, 172(2), 127–134.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Margerison-Zilko, C. E., Strutz, K. L., Li, Y., & Holzman, C. (2017). Stressors across the life-course and preterm delivery: Evidence from a pregnancy cohort. Maternal and Child Health Journal, 21(3), 648–658.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Ncube, C. N., Enquobahrie, D. A., Burke, J. G., Ye, F., Marx, J., & Albert, S. M. (2017). Transgenerational transmission of preterm birth risk: The role of race and generational socio-economic neighborhood context. Maternal and Child Health Journal, 21(8), 1616–1626.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Pearl, M., Ahern, J., Hubbard, A., Laraia, B., Shrimali, B. P., Poon, V., & Kharrazi, M. (2018). Life-course neighbourhood opportunity and racial-ethnic disparities in risk of preterm birth. Paediatric and Perinatal Epidemiology, 32(5), 412–419.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Porter, T. F., Fraser, A. M., Hunter, C. Y., Ward, R. H., & Varner, M. W. (1997). The risk of preterm birth across generations. Obstetrics and Gynecology, 90(1), 63–67.

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Rutgers School of Public Health, Department of Biostatistics and Epidemiology, Piscataway, NJ, USA

    Neetu J. Jain, Pamela A. Ohman-Strickland & George G. Rhoads

  2. Rutgers Robert Wood Johnson Medical School, Department of Medicine, New Brunswick, NJ, USA

    Ambarina S. Faiz

  3. University of Florida College of Medicine, Department of Obstetrics and Gynaecology, Gainesville, FL, USA

    John C. Smulian

Authors
  1. Neetu J. Jain
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  2. Ambarina S. Faiz
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  3. Pamela A. Ohman-Strickland
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  4. John C. Smulian
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  5. George G. Rhoads
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Neetu J. Jain.

Additional information

Publisher's Note

Springer Nature remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations.

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Check for updates. Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this article

Jain, N.J., Faiz, A.S., Ohman-Strickland, P.A. et al. Educational Attainment of Grandmothers and Preterm Birth in Grandchildren. Matern Child Health J 25, 293–301 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10995-020-03021-2

Download citation

  • Accepted:

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10995-020-03021-2

Keywords

Search

Navigation