ABSTRACT
OBJECTIVE: To identify risk factors for pregnancy outcomes in couples treated with intracervical or intrauterine insemination, with or without superovulation for unexplained or male-factor infertility. DESIGN: Secondary analysis of data from a randomized superovulation and intrauterine insemination trial. SETTING: Academic medical centers. INTERVENTION(S): Treatment continued for four cycles unless pregnancy was achieved. PATIENT(S): Out of 932 couples randomized to four treatment groups, 664 couples who had completed the lifestyle questionnaires were assessed for occurrence of pregnancy and live birth. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURE(S): Pregnancy and live birth. RESULT(S): The pregnancy and live birth rates were significantly higher in couples in which the female partners reported that they had consumed coffee or tea in the past or drank alcoholic beverages in the past (past users) compared with those who had never consumed coffee, tea, or alcoholic beverages. Past users also had significantly higher pregnancy and live birth rates than those currently consuming coffee or tea or alcoholic beverages. Demographic, occupational exposure, and other lifestyle factors were not significant. CONCLUSION(S): Couples in which the female partners drank coffee, tea, or alcoholic beverages in the past had higher pregnancy and live birth rates compared with never or current users. When discontinuing these habits, they might have made other lifestyle changes to improve the pregnancy outcome.
Subject(s)
Infertility, Male/therapy , Infertility/therapy , Insemination, Artificial , Life Style , Live Birth , Ovulation Induction , Pregnancy Rate , Academic Medical Centers , Adult , Alcohol Drinking/adverse effects , Alcoholic Beverages/adverse effects , Chi-Square Distribution , Coffee/adverse effects , Female , Humans , Infertility/etiology , Infertility/physiopathology , Infertility, Male/epidemiology , Infertility, Male/physiopathology , Insemination, Artificial/adverse effects , Logistic Models , Male , Middle Aged , Multivariate Analysis , Ovulation Induction/adverse effects , Pregnancy , Prospective Studies , Risk Assessment , Risk Factors , Risk Reduction Behavior , Superovulation , Surveys and Questionnaires , Tea/adverse effects , Treatment Outcome , United States , Young AdultABSTRACT
Schizophrenia is a severe mental disorder of unknown etiology. Recent reports suggest that a number of environmental factors during prenatal development may be associated with schizophrenia. We tested the hypothesis that environmental lead exposure may be associated with schizophrenia using archived serum samples from a cohort of live births enrolled between 1959 and 1966 in Oakland, California. Cases of schizophrenia spectrum disorder were identified and matched to controls. A biologic marker of lead exposure, delta-aminolevulinic acid (delta-ALA), was determined in second-trimester serum samples of 44 cases and 75 controls. delta-ALA was stratified into high and low categories, yielding 66 subjects in the high category, corresponding to a blood lead level (BPb) greater than or equal to 15 micro g/dL, and 53 in the low category, corresponding to BPb less than 15 micro g/dL. Using logistic regression, the odds ratio (OR) for schizophrenia associated with higher delta-ALA was 1.83 [95% confidence interval (CI), 0.87-3.87; p = 0.1]. Adjusting for covariates gave an OR of 2.43 (95% CI, 0.99-5.96; p = 0.051). This finding suggests that the effects of prenatal exposure to lead and/or elevated delta-ALA may extend into later life and must be further investigated as risk factors for adult psychiatric diseases.
