Publications by authors named "Joel G Ray"

Study Question: What is the association between infertility with or without fertility treatment and incident onset of systemic autoimmune rheumatic disease (SARD) among women who give birth?

Summary Answer: Women who experienced infertility but did not use fertility treatment had a higher incidence of SARD up to 9 years after delivery than those who did not experience infertility, even after accounting for their higher rates of preeclampsia, spontaneous preterm birth, and stillbirth.

What Is Known Already: Infertility is increasingly common and is an under-appreciated risk marker for chronic diseases in women. Despite several studies documenting abnormal immune activity in women with infertility, little is known about the association between infertility and incidence of autoimmune diseases such as SARD which disproportionately develops in reproductive-aged women.

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  • Newborn immunity is significantly influenced by how antibodies are transferred from the mother during pregnancy, specifically the ABO blood group connection between mother and child.* -
  • This study aimed to explore whether having differing ABO blood groups between mother and newborn (incongruency) correlates with a lower likelihood of bacterial infections in newborns.* -
  • An analysis of data from over 138,000 maternal-newborn pairs found that newborns with ABO blood group incongruency had fewer bacterial infections within the first 30 days compared to those with congruency.*
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Background: Administration of chemotherapy during pregnancy is often delayed, while preterm delivery is common. If in utero exposure to chemotherapy is associated with adverse pediatric outcomes, it is unknown whether that relationship is directly attributable to the chemotherapy or is mediated by preterm birth.

Methods: Cases were identified from Canadian cancer registries and administrative data in Alberta, British Columbia, and Ontario, 2003-2017, with follow-up until 2018.

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Background: Use of a gestational ("surrogate") carrier is increasingly common. Risk for maternal and neonatal adversity is largely unknown in this birthing population.

Objective: To determine the risk for severe maternal morbidity (SMM) and severe neonatal morbidity (SNM) in gestational carriers.

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In this research methods tutorial of clinical anesthesia, we will explore techniques to estimate the influence of a myriad of factors on patient outcomes. Big data that contain information on patients, treated by individual anesthesiologists and surgical teams, at different hospitals, have an inherent multi-level data structure (Fig. 1).

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Background: Autoimmune diseases disproportionately impact women and female-specific aspects of reproduction are thought to play a role. We investigated the time-varying association between pregnancy complications and new-onset autoimmune disease in females during the reproductive and midlife years.

Methods: We conducted a population-based cohort study of 1 704 553 singleton births to 1 072 445 females in Ontario, Canada (2002-17) with no pre-existing autoimmune disease.

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Introduction: In Canada, newborn morbidity far surpasses mortality. The neonatal adverse outcome indicator (NAOI) summarizes neonatal morbidity, but Canadian trend data are lacking.

Methods: This Canada-wide retrospective cross-sectional study included hospital livebirths between 24 and 42 weeks' gestation, from 2013 to 2022.

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Objective: To assess whether procedural-induced abortion or provider-initiated preterm delivery are associated with improved survival in pregnant people with cancer.

Design: Retrospective population-based cohort study.

Setting: Provinces of Alberta and Ontario, Canada, 2003-2016.

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  • * Among women with HDP, there has been a slight increase in cesarean deliveries and acute renal failure, despite a decrease in other severe complications like early preterm delivery and maternal intensive care admissions.
  • * The study highlights the need for continuous monitoring of HDP trends and their associated outcomes to understand the effectiveness of prevention and management strategies in place.
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Individuals with disabilities may require specific medications in pregnancy. The prevalence and patterns of medication use, overall and for medications with known teratogenic risks, are largely unknown. This population-based cohort study in Ontario, Canada, 2004-2021, comprised all recognized pregnancies among individuals eligible for public drug plan coverage.

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Clinical discoveries largely depend on dedicated clinicians and scientists to identify and pursue unique and unusual clinical encounters with patients and communicate these through case reports and case series. This process has remained essentially unchanged throughout the history of modern medicine. However, these traditional methods are inefficient, especially considering the modern-day availability of health-related data and the sophistication of computer processing.

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Background: Contemporary estimates of diabetes mellitus (DM) rates in pregnancy are lacking in Canada. Accordingly, this study examined trends in the rates of type 1 (T1DM), type 2 (T2DM) and gestational (GDM) DM in Canada over a 15-year period, and selected adverse pregnancy outcomes.

Methods: This study used repeated cross-sectional data from the Canadian Institute of Health Information (CIHI) hospitalization discharge abstract database (DAD).

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Importance: Emergency department (ED) use postpartum is a common and often-preventable event. Unlike traditional obstetrics models, the Ontario midwifery model offers early care postpartum.

Objective: To assess whether postpartum ED use differs between women who received perinatal care in midwifery-model care vs in traditional obstetrics-model care.

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Objective: Existing studies, in mostly male samples such as veterans and athletes, show a strong association between traumatic brain injury (TBI) and mental illness. Yet, while an understanding of mental health before pregnancy is critical for informing preconception and perinatal supports, there are no data on the prevalence of active mental illness before pregnancy in females with TBI. We examined the prevalence of active mental illness ≤2 years before pregnancy (1) in a population with TBI, and (2) in subgroups defined by sociodemographic, health, and injury-related characteristics, all compared to those without TBI.

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  • Severe maternal morbidity (SMM) can significantly affect a mother's long-term health, particularly her mental well-being, but little research has focused on this connection.
  • This study investigates the impact of experiencing SMM during a first childbirth on the likelihood of subsequent hospitalizations or emergency visits for mental health issues over a 13-year period in Canada.
  • Out of over 2 million postpartum individuals analyzed, 2.3% experienced SMM, and the results suggest a higher risk for mental health problems in those affected, taking into consideration various maternal demographics and health factors.
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Objective: To define major congenital anomaly (CA) subgroups and assess outcome variability based on defined subgroups.

Study Design: This population-based cohort study used registries in Denmark for children born with a major CA between January 1997 and December 2016, with follow-up until December 2018. We performed a latent class analysis (LCA) using child and family clinical and sociodemographic characteristics present at birth, incorporating additional variables occurring until age of 24 months.

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  • - The study aimed to identify factors related to maternal deaths around pregnancy by analyzing coroner's data in Ontario, Canada, from 2004 to 2020.
  • - Researchers found three distinct groups of maternal deaths: those occurring in hospitals during or shortly after birth (52.7%), those from accidents or complications (26.3%), and postpartum suicides (21.0%).
  • - Key causes of death included physical injury (22.0%), hemorrhage (16.8%), and overdose (13.3%), suggesting these findings could help improve clinical practices and policies to reduce maternal mortality.
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Background: Autism spectrum disorder (ASD) is a neurodevelopmental condition that manifests in early childhood, in which the maternal metabolic syndrome may be a risk factor. The kidney is a barometer of maternal metabolic syndrome duration and severity.

Objective: The main objective of this study is to determine whether periconceptional kidney function is associated with ASD in early childhood.

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