Impact of Prenatal Health Conditions and Health Behaviors in Pregnant Women on Infant Birth Defects in the United States Using CDC-PRAMS 2018 Survey

Objective: To assess both individual and interactive effects of prenatal medical conditions depression and diabetes, and health behaviors including smoking during pregnancy on infant birth defects. Methods: The data for this research study were collected by the Pregnancy Risk Assessment Monitoring System (PRAMS) in 2018. Birth certificate records were used in each participating jurisdiction to select a sample representative of all women who delivered a live-born infant. Complex sampling weights were used to analyze the data with a weighted sample size of 4,536,867. Descriptive statistics were performed to explore frequencies of the independent and dependent variables. Bivariate and multivariable analyses were conducted to examine associations among the independent and dependent variables. Results: The results indicate significant interaction between the variables smoking and depression and depression and diabetes (OR = 3.17; p-value < 0.001 and OR = 3.13; p-value < 0.001, respectively). Depression during pregnancy was found to be strongly associated with delivering an infant with a birth defect (OR = 1.31, p-value < 0.001). Conclusion: Depression during pregnancy and its interaction with smoking and diabetes are vital in determining birth defects in infants. The results indicate that birth defects in the United States can be reduced by lowering depression in pregnant women.