Association between maternal interpregnancy interval after live birth or pregnancy termination and birth weight: a quantile regression analysis.

We used quantile regression (QR) to assess if the length of the interpregnancy interval (IPI) after live birth and pregnancy termination is associated with weight in subsequent birth. The analysis included 9663 and 3400 women with IPI after live birth and pregnancy termination, respectively. For the women after live birth, an IPI < 12 months had negative effects at the 5th and 10th quantiles of the birth weight (BW) distribution. When the BW was beyond the 90th quantile, the BWs of newborns whose mothers with longer IPI (36-59 months) were higher than the reference group (18~23 months). For women after pregnancy termination in the 10th quantile, it was observed that those pregnant women with IPIs between 36 and 47 months had a negative effect (150 g) on BW compared with the reference group. This finding revealed that mothers with IPI < 12 months resulted in a decrease of 85 g at 75th quantile. The impact of IPI > 119 months in the upper quantile (95th) had an increase of 330 g in BW. Our results demonstrated that both short (<12 months) and long (>36 months) IPIs are independently associated with higher risks of low birth weight (LBW) and macrosomia.