Care-related factors associated with antepartal diagnosis of intrauterine growth restrictions (BIUS) - A case-control study

Description

Antenatal care is of core importance for maternal and child health and is therefore a central aspect of mother and child health care. One of the main goals of effective screening in antenatal care is the detection of suboptimal fetal growth. However, the sensitivity of antenatal diagnostic of suboptimal fetal growth (i.e. intrauterine growth restriction; IUGR) through clinical routine fetal ultrasonography has been observed to be low. A study conducted in Germany found that only 30% of IUGR cases and 40% of congenital malformations were diagnosed antenatally. Reasons for this low detection rate remain unclear.

The aim of this hospital-based case-control study was to identify care-related and maternal risk factors for non-detecton of intrauterine growth restrictions during pregnancy. The study also examined differences in quality of care, course of treatment and access to care in relation to maternal characteristics. The results indicate that the detection rates did not increase during the last 15 years. We identified three factors that are related to antenatal detection: severity of IUGR, maternal complications and a Doppler examination during the course of pregnancy. We did not find statistically significant differences regarding parental socioeconomic status and maternal migration background.

Funding period

Begin:   March 2012
End:   February 2015

Sponsor

  • Federal Ministry of Education and Research

Contact

Dr. phil. Tilman Brand

Selected project-related publications

    Articles with peer-review

  • Ernst SA, Brand T, Lhachimi SK, Zeeb H. Combining internet-based and postal survey methods in a survey among gynecologists: Results of a randomized trial. Health Services Research. 2018;53(2):879-895.
    https://doi.org/10.1111/1475-6773.12664
  • Ernst SA, Brand T, Reeske A, Spallek J, Petersen K, Zeeb H. Care-related and maternal risk factors associated with the antenatal nondetection of intrauterine growth restriction: A case-control study from Bremen, Germany. BioMed Research International. 2017;2017:1746146.
    https://doi.org/10.1155/2017/1746146
  • Ernst SA, Reeske A, Spallek J, Petersen K, Brand T, Zeeb H. Care-related factors associated with antepartal diagnosis of intrauterine growth restriction: A case-control study. BMC Pregnancy and Childbirth. 2014;14:371.
    https://doi.org/10.1186/s12884-014-0371-5

    • Posters at scientific meetings/conferences

  • Ernst SA, Brand T, Spallek J, Zeeb H. Antenatal detection of intrauterine growth restriction: A case-control study. Congress "Health - Exploring Complexity: An Interdisciplinary Systems Approach (HEC2016)." Joint Annual Meeting of the German Society for Medical Informatics, Biometry and Epidemiology (GMDS), the German Society for Epidemiology (DGEpi), the International Epidemiological Association - European Region (IEA-EEF) and the European Federation for Medical Informatics Association (EFMI), 28 August-2 September 2016, Munich. (Abstract published in: European Journal of Epidemiology. 2016;31(Suppl.1):S50)
  • Gencer H, Ernst SA, Brand T, Zeeb H. Erhöhen webbasierte Erhebungsmethoden die Response in Ärztebefragungen? Ein systematisches Literaturreview. 8. Jahrestagung der Deutschen Gesellschaft für Epidemiologie (DGEpi), 24.-27. September 2013, Leipzig.