Covid-19 during pregnancy is associated with neurodevelopmental disorders in the baby, but more research is required

Covid-19 complicates pregnancies and childbirth, say two studies 1:25

(CNN) -- 

Babies born to mothers who had COVID-19 during pregnancy may be more likely to have neurodevelopmental disorders in their first year of life, a new study suggests.

The study authors and outside experts say more study is needed.

Among more than 7,000 babies, 6.3% of those whose mothers had COVID-19 during pregnancy were diagnosed with neurodevelopmental disorders within 12 months of birth, compared to 3% of babies whose mothers did not test positive during pregnancy, according to the study, published Thursday in the academic journal JAMA Network Open.

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"These preliminary results suggest that COVID-19 exposure may be associated with neurodevelopmental changes and highlight the need to prospectively investigate outcomes for children exposed to COVID-19 in utero," the researchers wrote, from Massachusetts General Hospital and Harvard Medical School.

The study included data on 7,772 babies who were born in Massachusetts between March and September 2020. Electronic health records showed that 222 were born to mothers who tested positive for COVID-19 while pregnant.

The researchers found that 14 of those 222 babies, 6.3%, received a neurodevelopmental disorder diagnosis within 12 months of birth.

"Most of these diagnoses reflected developmental disorders of motor function or speech and language," the researchers wrote.

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They also noted that although mothers who had COVID-19 during pregnancy had an increased risk of preterm birth, "adjusting for preterm birth did not explain all of the observed increased risk of incurring a neurodevelopmental disorder diagnosis."

In addition, the rates of diabetes and hypertension were similar between the two groups of mothers.

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The researchers wrote that their findings of a possible link between an infant's exposure to COVID-19 in the womb and subsequent neurodevelopmental diagnoses are consistent with "a large body of literature including human and animal studies linking viral infection and maternal immune activation with neurodevelopmental disorders of the offspring later in life, some of which may be identified as early as the first year of life.

Still, the study only describes a correlation and not a direct cause.

Overall, "the inflammatory environment seen with infection is of concern for long-term adverse health consequences for offspring and has been shown with other infections," wrote Torri Metz, MD, of the University of Health at Utah in Salt Lake City, in a commentary published alongside the new study.

"However, we are wondering if it is the virus itself or the societal changes and stress of the pandemic that is negatively affecting childhood outcomes," he added.

"Perhaps the most important question is how to intervene to help mitigate the adverse effects of the pandemic on young children."

Metz wrote.

"Prospective studies to validate these findings, tease out some of the nuances, and identify those most at risk will help healthcare professionals appropriately dedicate resources to improve outcomes as we follow the life course of this disease." generation of children born during the covid-19 pandemic".

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Dorothy Bishop, a professor of developmental neuropsychology at the University of Oxford, said in a statement provided to the Science Media Center that preliminary research is inconclusive.

More research is needed in larger samples of children as they get older, when these diagnoses are more typically made, said Bishop, who was not involved in the research.

"It's clear that pregnant women should do everything they can to avoid Covid, but if they do get infected, the odds are high that their baby won't have obvious neurodevelopmental problems in the first year of life," Bishop said.

AutismCovid-19PregnancyADHD