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Association between Sexual Activity during Pregnancy, Pre- and Early-Term Birth, and Vaginal Cytokine Inflammation: A Prospective Study of Black Women

This study aimed to investigate the association between sexual activity during pregnancy and adverse birth outcomes among Black women, and to explore whether vaginal cytokine inflammation mediates this association. Data from 397 Black pregnant women through questionnaires on sexual activity and vagi...

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Autores principales: Dougherty, Kylie, Zhao, Yihong, Dunlop, Anne L., Corwin, Elizabeth
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: MDPI 2023
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC10379435/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/37510436
http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/healthcare11141995
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author Dougherty, Kylie
Zhao, Yihong
Dunlop, Anne L.
Corwin, Elizabeth
author_facet Dougherty, Kylie
Zhao, Yihong
Dunlop, Anne L.
Corwin, Elizabeth
author_sort Dougherty, Kylie
collection PubMed
description This study aimed to investigate the association between sexual activity during pregnancy and adverse birth outcomes among Black women, and to explore whether vaginal cytokine inflammation mediates this association. Data from 397 Black pregnant women through questionnaires on sexual activity and vaginal biosamples during early (8–14 weeks) and late (24–30 weeks) pregnancy, and birth outcomes were analyzed. Using a data-driven approach, the study found that vaginal sex during late pregnancy was associated with spontaneous early-term birth (sETB, 38–39 completed weeks’ gestation) (OR = 0.39, 95% CI: [0.21, 0.72], p-value = 0.003) but not with spontaneous preterm birth (sPTB) (OR = 1.08, p-value = 0.86) compared to full-term birth. Overall, despite vaginal sex in late pregnancy showing an overall positive effect on sETB (total effect = −0.1580, p-value = 0.015), we observed a negative effect of vaginal sex on sETB (indirect effect = 0.0313, p-value = 0.026) due to the fact that having vaginal sex could lead to elevated IL6 levels, which in turn increased the odds of sETB. In conclusion, the study found an overall positive association between sexual activity on ETB and a negative partial mediation effect via increased vaginal cytokine inflammation induced by vaginal sexual activity. This inconsistent mediation model suggested that vaginal sexual activity is a complex behavior that could have both positive and negative effects on the birth outcome.
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spelling pubmed-103794352023-07-29 Association between Sexual Activity during Pregnancy, Pre- and Early-Term Birth, and Vaginal Cytokine Inflammation: A Prospective Study of Black Women Dougherty, Kylie Zhao, Yihong Dunlop, Anne L. Corwin, Elizabeth Healthcare (Basel) Article This study aimed to investigate the association between sexual activity during pregnancy and adverse birth outcomes among Black women, and to explore whether vaginal cytokine inflammation mediates this association. Data from 397 Black pregnant women through questionnaires on sexual activity and vaginal biosamples during early (8–14 weeks) and late (24–30 weeks) pregnancy, and birth outcomes were analyzed. Using a data-driven approach, the study found that vaginal sex during late pregnancy was associated with spontaneous early-term birth (sETB, 38–39 completed weeks’ gestation) (OR = 0.39, 95% CI: [0.21, 0.72], p-value = 0.003) but not with spontaneous preterm birth (sPTB) (OR = 1.08, p-value = 0.86) compared to full-term birth. Overall, despite vaginal sex in late pregnancy showing an overall positive effect on sETB (total effect = −0.1580, p-value = 0.015), we observed a negative effect of vaginal sex on sETB (indirect effect = 0.0313, p-value = 0.026) due to the fact that having vaginal sex could lead to elevated IL6 levels, which in turn increased the odds of sETB. In conclusion, the study found an overall positive association between sexual activity on ETB and a negative partial mediation effect via increased vaginal cytokine inflammation induced by vaginal sexual activity. This inconsistent mediation model suggested that vaginal sexual activity is a complex behavior that could have both positive and negative effects on the birth outcome. MDPI 2023-07-11 /pmc/articles/PMC10379435/ /pubmed/37510436 http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/healthcare11141995 Text en © 2023 by the authors. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).
spellingShingle Article
Dougherty, Kylie
Zhao, Yihong
Dunlop, Anne L.
Corwin, Elizabeth
Association between Sexual Activity during Pregnancy, Pre- and Early-Term Birth, and Vaginal Cytokine Inflammation: A Prospective Study of Black Women
title Association between Sexual Activity during Pregnancy, Pre- and Early-Term Birth, and Vaginal Cytokine Inflammation: A Prospective Study of Black Women
title_full Association between Sexual Activity during Pregnancy, Pre- and Early-Term Birth, and Vaginal Cytokine Inflammation: A Prospective Study of Black Women
title_fullStr Association between Sexual Activity during Pregnancy, Pre- and Early-Term Birth, and Vaginal Cytokine Inflammation: A Prospective Study of Black Women
title_full_unstemmed Association between Sexual Activity during Pregnancy, Pre- and Early-Term Birth, and Vaginal Cytokine Inflammation: A Prospective Study of Black Women
title_short Association between Sexual Activity during Pregnancy, Pre- and Early-Term Birth, and Vaginal Cytokine Inflammation: A Prospective Study of Black Women
title_sort association between sexual activity during pregnancy, pre- and early-term birth, and vaginal cytokine inflammation: a prospective study of black women
topic Article
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC10379435/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/37510436
http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/healthcare11141995
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