Journal article
Trends in fetal and neonatal outcomes during the COVID-19 pandemic in Alabama
Pediatric research, Vol.94(2), pp.756-761
08/2023
DOI: 10.1038/s41390-023-02533-1
PMCID: PMC9988197
PMID: 36879081
Abstract
The current study evaluated the hypothesis that the COVID-19 pandemic is associated with higher stillbirth but lower neonatal mortality rates.
We compared three epochs: baseline (2016-2019, January-December, weeks 1-52, and 2020, January-February, weeks 1-8), initial pandemic (2020, March-December, weeks 9-52, and 2021, January-June, weeks 1-26), and delta pandemic (2021, July-September, weeks 27-39) periods, using Alabama Department of Public Health database including deliveries with stillbirths ≥20 weeks or live births ≥22 weeks gestation. The primary outcomes were stillbirth and neonatal mortality rates.
A total of 325,036 deliveries were included (236,481 from baseline, 74,076 from initial pandemic, and 14,479 from delta pandemic period). The neonatal mortality rate was lower in the pandemic periods (4.4 to 3.5 and 3.6/1000 live births, in the baseline, initial, and delta pandemic periods, respectively, p < 0.01), but the stillbirth rate did not differ (9 to 8.5 and 8.6/1000 births, p = 0.41). On interrupted time-series analyses, there were no significant changes in either stillbirth (p = 0.11 for baseline vs. initial pandemic period, and p = 0.67 for baseline vs. delta pandemic period) or neonatal mortality rates (p = 0.28 and 0.89, respectively).
The COVID-19 pandemic periods were not associated with a significant change in stillbirth and neonatal mortality rates compared to the baseline period.
The COVID-19 pandemic could have resulted in changes in fetal and neonatal outcomes. However, only a few population-based studies have compared the risk of fetal and neonatal mortality in the pandemic period to the baseline period. This population-based study identifies the changes in fetal and neonatal outcomes during the initial and delta COVID-19 pandemic period as compared to the baseline period. The current study shows that stillbirth and neonatal mortality rates were not significantly different in the initial and delta COVID-19 pandemic periods as compared to the baseline period.
Details
- Title: Subtitle
- Trends in fetal and neonatal outcomes during the COVID-19 pandemic in Alabama
- Creators
- Vivek V Shukla - University of Alabama at BirminghamA K M Fazlur Rahman - University of Alabama at BirminghamXuejun Shen - Alabama Department of Public HealthAllison Black - University of Alabama at BirminghamNitin Arora - University of Alabama at BirminghamC Vivek Lal - University of Alabama at BirminghamEdward F Bell - University of IowaArie Nakhmani - University of Alabama at BirminghamChengcui Zhang - University of Alabama at BirminghamNamasivayam Ambalavanan - University of Alabama at BirminghamWaldemar A Carlo - University of Alabama at Birmingham
- Resource Type
- Journal article
- Publication Details
- Pediatric research, Vol.94(2), pp.756-761
- DOI
- 10.1038/s41390-023-02533-1
- PMID
- 36879081
- PMCID
- PMC9988197
- ISSN
- 0031-3998
- eISSN
- 1530-0447
- Language
- English
- Electronic publication date
- 03/06/2023
- Date published
- 08/2023
- Academic Unit
- Stead Family Department of Pediatrics; Neonatology
- Record Identifier
- 9984375456202771
Metrics
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