SynthesisBMC psychiatry2023
Maternal psychological stress during pregnancy and newborn telomere length: a systematic review and meta-analysis.
Synthesis in BMC psychiatry, 2023. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 12 papers, 2 of them syntheses that pooled it.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
12 citing papers in PubMed, 2 syntheses or guidelines pooled it, 13 citations in OpenAlex.
- Impact of Maternal Lifetime Stress on Offspring Biological Aging: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis of Observational Studies.International journal of molecular sciences · 2026Pooled it
- Maternal smoking during pregnancy and newborn telomere length (TL): a systematic review and meta-analysis of observational studies.BMC pregnancy and childbirth · 2025Pooled it
- Maternal health behavior during pregnancy mediates the relationship between maternal stress and newborn telomere length.Brain, behavior, & immunity - health · 2026Article
- Exposure to Endocrine Disruptors and Stress Hormones Across Pregnancy Trimesters: Links with Maternal Telomere Length.Journal of xenobiotics · 2026Article
- Neighborhood built environment, psychosocial stressors, and telomere length of birth parents and their newborns from San Francisco, California.Journal of exposure science & environmental epidemiology · 2026Article
- Microbiome, Epigenetics, and Nutritional Factors in Shaping Perinatal Pregnancy Outcomes.International journal of molecular sciences · 2026Review
- Greek validation of the Pregnancy Experience Scale-Brief (PES-Brief): psychometric evaluation of prenatal stress in pregnant women.BMC pregnancy and childbirth · 2026Observational
- Maternal prenatal stress induces sex-dependent changes in tRNA fragment families and cholinergic pathways in newborns.Molecular psychiatry · 2025Article
- Leukocyte telomere length and birth characteristics associated with obesity in infancy in a predominantly Latinx cohort.Pediatric obesity · 2025Article
- Maternal Lifestyle During Pregnancy and Its Influence on Offspring's Telomere Length.Life (Basel, Switzerland) · 2025Review
- Infant buccal telomere length: associations with maternal distress in pregnancy and offspring temperament.Frontiers in public health · 2025Article
- High school diploma is associated with longer postpartum leukocyte telomere length in a cohort of primarily Latina women.Maternal health, neonatology and perinatology · 2024Article
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
8 authors at 3 institutions in 2 countries.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
introductionTelomeres protect the ends of chromosomes, and shorter leukocyte telomeres are associated with major group diseases. Maternal psychological stress may be related to the shortening of telomeres in infants. This systematic review and meta-analysis set out to consolidate the varying effect sizes found in studies of maternal psychological stress and telomere length (TL) in newborns and identify moderators of the relationship between stress during pregnancy and newborn TL.
methodsOur systematic review was registered in Prospero. Six databases (PubMed, Scopus, Embase, PsycINFO, Web of Science, and CINAHL Complete) were searched for records in English from inception to February 10, 2023. Observational studies were included that measured the relationship of psychological stress of the mother during pregnancy on the TL of the newborn. The Newcastle-Ottawa quality assessment scale was used to assess the quality of the included studies. A random-effect model was selected. Statistical analysis performed by Stata software version 17.
resultsEight studies were included for qualitative and four for quantitative analysis. There was an inverse statistically significant relationship between maternal stress and newborn TL; A one score increase in maternal psychological stress resulted in a 0.04 decrease in the TL of the newborn (B = -0.04, 95% CI = [-0.08, 0.00], p = 0.05). Selectivity analysis showed that the pooled effect size was sensitive to one study; After removing this study, the pooled effect size remained significant (B = -0.06, 95% CI = [-0. 10, -0.02], p < 0.001).
conclusionPhysiological and environmental factors can significantly affect the TL of newborns. Our results support a significant impact of maternal psychological stress on the TL of a newborn. This association demonstrates the significance of stress in influencing the telomere length, which can be a contributing factor in the infant's future. Therefore, recognizing this association is crucial for understanding and addressing potential health risks and necessitates the need for additional future studies to validate our findings.
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Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the Socratic graph.