THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN MATERNAL BODY MASS INDEX AND THE INCIDENCE OF PRETERM DELIVERY IN IRANIAN PREGNANT WOMEN: A SYSTEMATIC REVIEW

The mother's body mass index can change the incidence of preterm delivery, although there are many studies on the relationship between body mass index and preterm delivery, no study has reviewed these results in the Iraninan study. Thus, this review aimed to investigate the relationship between maternal body mass index and the incidence of preterm delivery in Iranian pregnant women.

In this review study, PubMed, Scopus, Science direct, SID, Magiran, Iranmedex, Irandoc, Medlib, and Google scholar databases were searched to find published articles from 2000 to August 2022 by using related keywords. The STROBE checklist was used to assess the quality of articles. From 383 articles obtained from search engines, 21 articles that achieved a score of ≥15.5 were entered into the study. Two reviewers reviewed the full text of the selected articles.

The results of studies, in this case, are contradictory. Out of 21 studies with a sample size of 33527 people, the results of 33.33% of the studies showed that high body mass index can be one of the main variables in the incidence of premature birth, while the other 33.33% of the studies in individuals with a lower body mass index, they reported a higher rate of preterm delivery. In another third of the studies, they generally did not observe a relationship between the pregnant mother's BMI and the incidence of premature birth.

Body mass index is related to the incidence of preterm delivery, and in people with low and high body mass index, the incidence of preterm delivery is higher. Therefore, in pre-pregnancy counseling, mothers' BMI should be given special attention as an important risk factor in pregnancy outcomes.