Social and environmental factors were related to preterm delivery in a national population of 10,330 singleton births occuring in the Jamaican National Perinatal Morbidity and Mortality Survey of 1986. Among women certain of their dates, the preterm delivery rate was 14.2 por ciento . Initial two-way tabulations indicated that the significant associations with preterm delivery were the marital status of the mother, her educational level, the job of the major wage earner, whether she was herself the major wage earner, her usual employment status, the food expenditure per person in the household and the parish in which she resided. In addition, there were associations with tobacco smoking (positive) and alcohol consumption (negative). Mothers who were in work at the time of quickening had a reduced risk of of preterm delivery. There was no association with coital rate at quickening. Mothers who were young or relatively old (35+) also had an increased risk of preterm delivery. Logistic regressiion was used to determine the statistically significant independent associations.

These were found to be:

parish of residence, maternal age, marital status of the mother, the job of major wage earner in the household, maternal cigarette smoking and the amount spent on food in the household. There were no independent associations with maternal education level or alcohol ingestion.