A new study has tied premature births in Latina women in the US to the 2016 election.
In the nine months following November 2016, a study done by JAMA Medical Journal showed 3.2 to 3.6 per cent more preterm births occurred than expected in the Latina demographic.
The study attributes the slight change to acute maternal stress influenced by the 2016 election.
However, the authors also note that the pre-term birth rate is correlated to the election, not caused by it.
"Because mothers and children are particularly vulnerable to psychosocial stress, our findings suggest that political campaigns, rhetoric and policies can contribute to increased levels of preterm birth," said Alison Gemmill, a professor at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health and author of the study.
"We think there are very few alternative explanations for these results. One possible explanation could be if there was a sudden change in the composition of Latina women giving birth around the time of the election.”
"A drop in the number of foreign-born women among all Latina women giving birth immediately after the election could have contributed to observed increases in preterm birth."
There are gaps in the research, as the study ended in 2017. The study did not differentiate foreign born Latina women and American born Latinas, CNN reports.
The study found that from November 2016 to July 2017 an additional 2,337 preterm births to Latina women occurred.
