General health in a cohort of children conceived after assisted reproductive technology in the United Kingdom: a population-based record-linkage study

BACKGROUND: Assisted reproductive technology use is increasing annually; however, data on long-term child health outcomes including hospital admissions are limited.OBJECTIVE: This study aimed to examine the potential effects of assisted reproductive technology on any and cause-specific hospital ad-missions unrelated to perinatal diagnoses.STUDY DESIGN: This was a population-based record-linkage study that included a previously established cohort of children born after assisted reproductive technology in the United Kingdom between 1997 and 2009 (n=63,877), their naturally conceived siblings (n=11,343), and matched naturally conceived population controls (n=127,544) linked to their postnatal health outcomes up to March 31, 2016 to provide robust risk estimates of the potential effects of assisted reproductive technology on any and cause-specific hospital admissions unrelated to perinatal diagnoses. In addition, comparison of hospital admissions by type of treatment was made. Cox regression was used to estimate the risk of hospital admission, and negative binomial regression was used to compare the number of hospital admissions per year.RESULTS: This study had 1.6 million person-years of follow-up (mean, 12.9 years; range, 0-19 years), and the mean age at the time of first hospital admission was 6.5 years (range, 0-19 years). Singletons born after assisted reproductive technology had increased risk of any hospital admission compared with naturally conceived population controls (hazard ratio, 1.08; 95% confidence interval, 1.05-1.10) but not naturally conceived siblings (hazard ratio, 1.01; 95% confidence interval, 0.94-1.09). We observed increased risk of diagnoses related to neo-plasms and diseases of the respiratory, musculoskeletal, digestive, and genitourinary systems, and lower risk of injury, poisoning, and conse-quences of external causes compared with naturally conceived population controls. Children born after intracytoplasmic sperm injection had a lower risk of hospital admission compared with those born after in vitro fertil-ization, although no such differences were observed between children born after fresh embryo transfers and those born after frozen embryo transfers.CONCLUSION: Children born after assisted reproductive technology had greater numbers of hospital admissions compared with naturally conceived population controls. Attenuation of these differences in relation to their naturally conceived siblings suggested that this could be partially attributed to the influence of parental subfertility on child health, increased parental concerns, and an actual increase in morbidity in children born after assisted conception.

Automated summary

This study examined the effects of assisted reproductive technology on hospital admissions in children. It found that children born after assisted reproductive technology had a higher risk of hospitalization compared to naturally conceived children, but no significant difference was observed when compared to their naturally conceived siblings.