The effect of natural disasters on pregnancy outcmes: A Systematic Review

Abstract

Women with Prenatal exposure to Natural and Manmade disasters, may have an increased risk of unhealthy pregnancies and adverse birth outcomes such as spontaneous abortions and premature labor; low birth weight, preterm birth. Purpose: This Systematic Review aims to investigate the consequences of both natural and man-made disasters on pregnancy outcomes. Such as preterm birth, low birth weight (LBW), small for gestational age (SGA), stillbirth, spontaneous abortion, and pregnancy-related blood pressure complications. Materials and Method: This study is a systematic review. The study included articles published in both English and Persian languages and utilized various databases including: electronic databases including Medline, Web of Science, Embase, and Scopus up to November 12, 2022. PRISMA guidelines were used to assessing Quality Control and Risk of Bias Assessment of Included Studies. Results: The search conducted in the databases yielded 2939 unduplicated records. After reading the abstracts 2867 articles were excluded based on inclusion and exclusion criteria. Full texts of 72 article were prepared. However, upon reading the full texts of articles, 12 of them did not meet the inclusion criteria for the study. Consequently, 60 articles were ultimately included.