Assessing for prenatal risk factors associated with infant neurologic morbidity using a multivariate analysis

Abstract

Abstract Objective To characterize the biochemical and demographic profiles of pregnant people with maternal immune activation (MIA) and identify the prenatal characteristics associated with neurologic morbidity in offspring. Study design: This was a population-based retrospective cohort study of mother-infant dyads with births between 2009–2010 in California. Multivariable logistic regression was used to build a MIA vulnerability profile including mid-pregnancy biochemical markers and maternal demographic characteristics, and its relationship with infant neurologic morbidity was examined. Results Of the 602 mother-infant dyads, 80 mothers and 61 infants had diagnoses suggestive of MIA and neurologic morbidity, respectively. Our model, including two demographic and seven biochemical characteristics, identified mothers with MIA with good performance (AUC:0.814; 95%CI:0.7–0.8). Three demographic and five inflammatory markers together identified 80% of infants with neurological morbidity (AUC:0.802, 95%CI:0.7–0.8). Conclusion Inflammatory environment in mothers with pre-existing risk factors like obesity, poverty and prematurity renders offspring more susceptible to neurologic morbidities.