Fetal Sex as a Predictor of Sleep Disordered Breathing and Associated
Pregnancy Complications: Analysis of a National Perinatal Cohort
Abstract
Study objectives: We aimed to determine if fetal sex was associated with
sleep disordered breathing (SDB) in pregnancy, and if fetal sex was
associated with increased risk for adverse pregnancy outcomes among
women with sleep disordered breathing. Methods: We analyzed 1,312,681
maternal-infant dyads from the National Perinatal Information Center
database. This database includes discharge diagnosis and procedure codes
based on the International Classification of Diseases, 9th Revision
(ICD-9) from hospitals across the United States. We examined
associations between fetal sex and SDB, gestational diabetes,
gestational hypertension, preeclampsia, preterm birth, delivery type,
and stillbirth. Results: Women were on average 30 years old (SD=6) and
were 46% White, 18% Black, and 7% Hispanic. Logistic regression
analyses revealed that carrying a male fetus was associated with
increased risk for gestational diabetes (ORadj. 1.04, 95% CI 1.02-1.05,
p-value <0.001), gestational hypertension (ORadj. 1.04, 95%
CI 1.02-1.05, p-value =0.001), Cesarean delivery (ORadj. 1.17, 95% CI
1.16-1.19, p-value <0.001), and preterm birth (ORadj. 1.13,
95% CI 1.11-1.15, p-value <0.001). Fetal sex was not
associated with SDB (ORadj. 0.99, 95% CI 0.89-1.12, p-value=.98), nor
did fetal sex increase risk for adverse pregnancy outcomes among women
with SDB (p-values > .09). Conclusions: Male fetal sex was
associated with an increased risk for a number of adverse pregnancy
outcomes, however fetal sex was not associated with SDB. Given the low
rates of SDB discharge diagnoses in this cohort, future research is
needed using objective measures of SDB to evaluate the association
between fetal sex and SDB.