Abstract:
Objective To investigate the association between maternal infection with the SARS-CoV-2 Omicron variant during pregnancy and common infant illnesses and neurodevelopment.
Methods A cohort study was designed, selecting 113 pregnant women from Shanghai’s Pudong New Area who tested positive for SARS-CoV-2 by nasal swab reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) and were transported to medical institutions for isolation treatment between March and May 2022. These women constituted the pregnancy infection group. Concurrently, 226 pregnant women from the same region and time period who did not infect with SARS-CoV-2 were selected as the control group. Both groups were followed up until delivery and their offspring’s one year old. The differences in the risk of common infant illnesses and the level of infant’s neurodevelopment at age one were compared between the two groups.
Results No significant difference was found in the incidence of common illnesses before one year of age between the pregnancy infection group and the control group. Additionally, no significant differences were found in any domain scores of the ASQ-3 between the two groups.
Conclusion Maternal infection with SARS-CoV-2 Omicron variant during pregnancy was not statistically significant correlated with common infant illnesses in infancy and neurodevelopment at age one.