Cohort Profile: Stress in Pregnancy (SIP) Study

Abstract

to understand the extent to which an adverse environment in utero can alter fetal growth and development, with potential lifelong impacts on health and disease, based on the theoretical framework of the 'Developmental Origins of Health and Diseases (DoHaD) Hypothesis'. [1][2][3][4][5][6] Growing evidence [7][8][9] suggests that not only the genome but also the epigenome, the heritable, quasi-stable yet dynamic control of gene expression, can be modulated by the environment, and plays a vital role in defining health and disease in growing offspring. [10][11][12] Preclinical studies demonstrated that antenatal stress leads to dysregulated neurobehavioural functioning and problems with development, providing a solid platform for hypothesis testing in human studies. Human studies have also demonstrated that antenatal exposure to broadly defined stress (i.e. stressful life events and psychological problems) is linked to long-term neurobehavioural problems in offspring, 13,14 such as autism, 15,16 schizophrenia [17][18][19][20] and attention deficit/hyperactivity disorder, [21][22][23] as well as growth-related suboptimal reproductive outcomes such as intra-uterine growth restriction (IUGR) [24][25][26] and obesity, [27][28][29] through epigenetic mechanisms.Human studies remain hampered by methodological restrictions, including: (i) the inability to randomize pregnant women in varying stressful condition and to systematically control for the level and timing of any exposure; (ii) stressful c A graduate/professional degree includes higher level postgraduate degrees (Master's, MD, JD, PhD etc).

Expression of placental regulatory genes is associated with fetal growth

“…The demographic and clinical characteristics of the RICHS [5] and SIP study [38] populations have been previously described and are summarized in Table 2. Briefly, the RICHS study population is predominately Caucasian (78.2%), with SGA, AGA and LGA infants constituting approximately 20%, 56% and 24%, respectively.…”

“…As the RICHS population is predominantly Caucasian (78%) and oversampled for SGA and LGA infants, we conducted a replication study in the Stress in Pregnancy (SIP) study [38], an on-going urban birth cohort that is more ethnically diverse and has a birth weight distribution comparable to general population. The current study includes mother-infant pairs recruited from prenatal clinics at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, New York Hospital of Queens and Queens College with available placental RNA.…”

Microbiota of newborn meconium is associated with maternal anxiety experienced during pregnancy

“…The sample set came from 75 newborns whose mothers participated in a longitudinal birth cohort recruited at the prenatal obstetrics and gynecology clinics at Mount Sinai Hospital and New York Presbyterian/Queens Hospital. A detailed description of the population is published in Finik and Nomura (). Both sites serve predominantly low‐income ethnic minority populations residing in New York City.…”

Prenatal exposure to disaster-related traumatic stress and developmental trajectories of temperament in early childhood: Superstorm Sandy pregnancy study

“…Exclusion criteria for participation included HIV infection, maternal psychosis, maternal age < 15 years, life-threatening maternal medical complications, and congenital or chromosomal abnormalities in the fetus. A detailed description of the study can be found elsewhere (Finik and Nomura, 2017). Demographic information, including maternal education, marital status, race, and age was reported by participants during the second trimester (Table 1).…”