Monitoring childbirth morbidity using hospital discharge data: further development and application of a composite measure.

Objective: The purpose of this study was to evaluate the use of a childbirth composite morbidity indicator for monitoring childbirth morbidity at hospital and regional levels in California.

Study Design: Study data were obtained from the 2005 linked maternal and neonatal discharge dataset for California hospitals. The study population was limited to laboring women with singleton, term (≥37 weeks' gestation), inborn, and live births.

Vitamin D and subsequent systolic hypertension among women.

Background: We examined data from a cohort of Caucasian women for evidence of an association between serum vitamin D (25-hydroxyvitamin D (25(OH)D)) insufficiency and greater risk of systolic hypertension in the population-based longitudinal Michigan Bone Health and Metabolism Study (MBHMS).

Methods: The cohort includes 559 women aged 24-44 years in 1992; annual blood pressure (BP) measurements and data collection began in 1992 and is ongoing. A single-time serum 25(OH)D level was measured in 1993.