BMJ 2001;322:266-270 ( 3 February )

Papers

Risk of adverse birth outcome and miscarriage in pregnant users of non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs: population based observational study and case-control study

Gunnar Lauge Nielsen, consultant, ^a Henrik Toft Sørensen, associate professor, ^b Helle Larsen, research fellow, ^d Lars Pedersen, biostatistician. ^c

^a Department of Medicine, Odder Hospital, DK-8300 Odder, Denmark, ^b Department of Clinical Epidemiology and Medicine V, Aalborg and Aarhus University Hospitals, DK-8000 Aarhus C, Denmark, ^c Danish Epidemiology Science Centre, Institute of Epidemiology and Social Medicine, DK-8000 Aarhus C, ^d Department of Obstetrics and Gynaecology and Medicine M, Aalborg Hospital, DK-9000 Aalborg, Denmark

Correspondence to: G L Nielsen uxgln{at}aas.nja.dk

Objective: To estimate the risk of adverse birth outcome in women who take non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs during pregnancy.
Design and setting: Population based cohort study and a case-control study, both based on data from a prescription registry, the Danish birth registry, and one county's hospital discharge registry.
Participants: Cohort study: 1462 pregnant women who had taken up prescriptions for non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs in the period from 30 days before conception to birth and 17 259 pregnant women who were not prescribed any drugs during pregnancy. Case-control study: 4268 women who had miscarriages, of whom 63 had taken non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs, and 29 750 primiparous controls who had live births.
Main outcome measures: Incidences of congenital abnormality, low birth weight, preterm birth, and miscarriage.
Results: Odds ratios for congenital abnormality, low birth weight, and preterm birth among women who took up prescriptions for non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs were 1.27 (95% confidence interval 0.93 to 1.75), 0.79 (0.45 to 1.38), and 1.05 (0.80 to 1.39) respectively. Odds ratios for the taking up of prescriptions in the weeks before miscarriage ranged from 6.99 (2.75 to 17.74) when prescriptions were taken up during the last week before the miscarriage to 2.69 (1.81 to 4.00) when taken up between 7 and 9 weeks before. The risk estimates were no different when the analysis was restricted to missed abortions.
Conclusions: Use of non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs during pregnancy does not seem to increase the risk of adverse birth outcome but is associated with increased risk of miscarriage.

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