# Leveraging health records to identify diagnoses associated with recurrent pregnancy loss across two medical centers

## TL;DR

This study uses health records from two hospitals to find medical conditions linked to repeated pregnancy loss, focusing on factors like infertility and age.

## Contribution

The study identifies diagnoses associated with recurrent pregnancy loss using EHR data from two centers and highlights age-related differences.

## Key findings

- Menstrual abnormalities and infertility diagnoses are significantly associated with RPL in both medical centers.
- RPL-associated diagnoses have higher odds ratios for patients under 35 years of age.
- Stanford results are sensitive to healthcare utilization, while UCSF results remain stable.

## Abstract

Recurrent pregnancy loss (RPL), defined as 2 or more pregnancy losses, affects 5–6% of ever-pregnant individuals. Approximately half of these cases have no identifiable explanation. In this study, we aim to identify diagnoses associated with RPL and generate hypotheses about RPL etiology utilizing electronic health record (EHR) data. We implemented a case-control study comparing the history of over 1,600 diagnoses between RPL and live birth patients, leveraging the University of California San Francisco (UCSF) and Stanford University EHR databases. In total, our study includes 8,496 RPL (UCSF: 3,840, Stanford: 4,656) and 53,278 control (UCSF: 17,259, Stanford: 36,019) patients. Menstrual abnormalities and infertility-associated diagnoses are significantly positively associated with RPL in both medical centers. Age-stratified analysis revealed that the majority of RPL-associated diagnoses have higher odds ratios for patients <35 years compared with 35+ years patients. While Stanford results are sensitive to control for healthcare utilization, UCSF results are stable across analyses with and without utilization.

•Etiology of recurrent pregnancy loss, defined as 2 or more pregnancy losses, remains elusive•EHR data from two medical centers were analyzed to generate hypotheses about RPL etiology•Menstrual abnormalities and infertility diagnoses are significantly associated with RPL•RPL-associated diagnoses have higher odds ratios for patients under 35 years of age

Etiology of recurrent pregnancy loss, defined as 2 or more pregnancy losses, remains elusive

EHR data from two medical centers were analyzed to generate hypotheses about RPL etiology

Menstrual abnormalities and infertility diagnoses are significantly associated with RPL

RPL-associated diagnoses have higher odds ratios for patients under 35 years of age

Health sciences; Medicine