Risk of adverse outcomes in pregnant women exposed to solvents.

OBJECTIVE

To compare maternal and live birth outcomes of women who received consultation services between 1990 and 1993 from the Wisconsin occupational reproductive health nurse consultant (76% of whom were solvent-exposed) and a sample of women and their offspring selected randomly from birth certificate records drawn from the same years.

DESIGN

Historical cohort study.

SETTING

Consultations occurred primarily through telephone contacts with pregnant women workers in Wisconsin. Birth certificate records were used to obtain additional information.

PARTICIPANTS

The convenience sample of largely solvent-exposed clients was compared with a random sample of women identified through birth records.

MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES

Relative risk (RR) estimates.

RESULTS

Confounding by race, prenatal care, and gestational diabetes was controlled by stratification. Logistic regression was used to control for age differences. Clients had elevated RR estimates for pregnancy-induced hypertension (RR = 2.4) and hydramnios (RR = 5.2), and their offspring were more likely to have 5-minute Apgar scores less than 8 (RR = 3.6). All other outcomes that were examined, including prematurity, low birth weight, and birth defects, were similar between groups.

CONCLUSIONS

Most maternal and live birth outcomes were similar between the clients who sought consultation and the random sample of women. The current study supports previous research, which shows an elevated risk of pregnancy-induced hypertension associated with solvent exposure in women. The increased risk of hydramnios found in this largely solvent-exposed cohort was not found in the literature.