Objective: This study conducted a nationwide retrospective cohort study to evaluate whether rehabilitation for pregnant women during long-term hospitalization is associated with adverse perinatal events.
Methods: We performed a retrospective cohort study using a diagnosis procedure combination (DPC) database, a national inpatient database for acute-care inpatients in Japan. Hospitalized pregnant women diagnosed with threatened preterm birth, who stayed in the hospital for 7 days or longer from July 2010 to March 2017 in Japan were identified. One-to-four propensity score-matched analyses were performed to compare perinatal outcomes between patients with and without rehabilitation during hospitalization. The primary outcome was preterm birth (<35/0 weeks of gestation) during hospitalization.
Results: Of the 141,705 eligible patients, 351 (0.25%) received any type of rehabilitation during hospitalization. One-to-four propensity score matching created a rehabilitation group (n = 338) and a nonrehabilitation group (n = 1352). The propensity-matched analysis showed that the proportion of preterm births in the rehabilitation group was lower than that in the nonrehabilitation group (5.9% versus 8.9%; risk difference: -3.0%; 95% confidence interval (CI): -5.9 to -0.03).
Conclusions: This retrospective nationwide study suggests that rehabilitation for hospitalized patients with threatened preterm birth may reduce the risk of preterm birth.
Brief rationale: In this nationwide study, we suggest that rehabilitation for long-term hospitalized patients with threatened preterm birth may reduce the risk of preterm birth.
Keywords: Cesarean section; physical therapy; preterm birth; rehabilitation.