Maternal Smoking and the Risk of Placenta Accreta Spectrum: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis

This is the first meta-analysis that assessed the association between maternal smoking and the risk of placenta accreta spectrum (PAS), so this study was aimed at investigating the association between maternal smoking and PAS based on observational studies. PAS is defined as a severe obstetric complication due to the abnormal invasion of the chorionic villi into the myometrium and uterine serosa.

We searched electronic bibliographic databases including PubMed, Web of Science, Scopus, Science Direct, and Google Scholar until January 2022. The results were reported using a random effect model. The chi-square test and the I ² statistic were used to assess heterogeneity. Egger's and Begg's tests were used to examine the probability of publication bias. All statistical analyses were performed at a significance level of 0.05 using Stata software, version 11.

Based on the random effect model, the estimated OR of the risk of PAS associated with smoking was 1.21 (95% CI: 1.02, 1.41; I ² = 4.7%). Subgroup analysis was conducted based on study design, and the result showed that the association between smoking and PAS among cohort studies was significant 1.35 (95% CI: 1.15, 1.55; I ² = 0.0%).

Our results suggested that maternal smoking is a risk factor for the PAS. There was no heterogeneity among studies that reported an association between smoking and the PAS. The Newcastle-Ottawa Scale (NOS) was used to measure study quality.