Results
The prevalence of maternal GBS colonization was 32% among the study population. In the univariate analyses, factors associated with maternal GBS colonization were tobacco smoking during pregnancy (P of trend <0.001), Race (African Americans with the highest colonization rates and East Asians the lowest; P<0.001), maternal age <20 years (P=0.006), low birthweight <2500 gm (P=0.02), maternal drug use (P=004), and gestational age <37 (P=0.041). Gestational diabetes, parity, and gender were not predictive of GBS colonization. In the multiple logistic regression analysis, Women who smoked during pregnancy were more than twice more likely to be colonized than their non-smoking counterparts (OR=2.6; 95% CI=1.5- 4.6; p<0.001). Maternal age was the only other significant predictor with young mothers < 20 years more than one and a half time more likely to be colonized than their older counterparts (OR= 1.65; 95% CI=1.02-2.68; P=0.04).