Mechanisms of allergy and clinical immunologyCesarean section and disease associated with immune function
Section snippets
Methods
This was a population- and register-based cohort study based on all children born in Denmark from January 1997 through December 2012. Data on maternal age, maternal smoking during pregnancy, complications during pregnancy (preeclampsia, eclampsia, hemorrhage, and hyperemesis), mode of delivery, sex, gestational age at birth, birth weight, neonatal respiratory morbidity, and diagnoses associated with immune function, including gastrointestinal and respiratory tract infections and autoimmune and
Results
During the study period, a total of 1,031,424 children were born in Denmark. Of these, 92,062 (8.9%) were delivered by acute CS, and 109,022 (10.6%) were delivered by elective CS. The number of children delivered by CS (both elective and acute) increased from 9,198 (13.6%) in 1997 to 12,704 (21.8%) in 2012. Of the total population, 67,093 children with gestational ages of less than 37 weeks at birth; 73,402 children with congenital chronic conditions, including all with congenital
Discussion
To our knowledge, this is the first study that discriminates between the effect of acute and elective CS when looking at the associations between CS and disease associated with immune function in the offspring. We show that both acute and elective CS are associated with laryngitis, asthma, and gastroenteritis; that acute CS is associated with ulcerative colitis and celiac disease; and that elective CS is associated with lower respiratory tract infection and juvenile idiopathic arthritis. In
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Supported by Edith og Henrik Henriksens Mindelegat.
Disclosure of potential conflict of interest: The authors received research support from Edith og Henrik Henriksens Mindelegat. L. Henriksen participated in an AbbVie safety study on palivizumab.