Abstract
Background: Some epidemiologic studies have suggested that the ingestion of caffeine increases the risk of spontaneous abortion, but the results have been inconsistent.
Methods: We performed a population-based, case-control study of early spontaneous abortion in Uppsala County, Sweden. The subjects were 562 women who had spontaneous abortion at 6 to 12 completed weeks of gestation (the case patients) and 953 women who did not have spontaneous abortion and were matched to the case patients according to the week of gestation (controls). Information on the ingestion of caffeine was obtained from in-person interviews. Plasma cotinine was measured as an indicator of cigarette smoking, and fetal karyotypes were determined from tissue samples. Multivariate analysis was used to estimate the relative risks associated with caffeine ingestion after adjustment for smoking and symptoms of pregnancy such as nausea, vomiting, and tiredness.
