In-utero COVID exposure tied to language, motor delays by 1 year

Infants born to mothers infected with SARS-CoV-2 during pregnancy were more likely to receive a neurodevelopmental diagnosis by 1 year of age, regardless of whether they were born pre-term, according to preliminary findings of a Massachusetts General Hospital study published yesterday in JAMA Network Open.The study included all 7,772 live births at one of six Massachusetts hospitals in two health systems from March to September 2020—before the emergence of the Delta and Omicron variants.Almost all (96%) of the 7,466 pregnancies were singletons, and 222 infants (2.9%) were born to COVID-19–infected mothers.

Average maternal age was 32.9 years, and the infants were Asian (9.9%), Black (8.4%), White (69.0%), or Hispanic (15.1%).Doubled rate of neurodevelopmental delaysFourteen of 222 (6.3%) of the infants exposed to SARS-CoV-2 in utero were diagnosed as having a neurodevelopmental abnormality, such as delayed speech, language, or motor function, compared with 227 of 7,550 (3.0%) of unexposed infantsInfants whose mothers tested positive for COVID-19 during pregnancy were more likely than those born to uninfected mothers to be given a neurodevelopmental diagnosis in their first year of life in both unadjusted models (odds ratio [OR], 2.17; 95% confidence interval [CI], 1.24 to 3.79) and after adjustment for race, ethnicity, insurance status, infant sex, maternal age, and preterm status (adjusted OR, 1.86; 95% CI, 1.03 to 3.36).This link was even more evident when infection occurred in the third trimester (adjusted OR, 2.34; 95% CI, 1.23 to 4.44).After accounting for non-singleton deliveries, the OR for any neurodevelopmental diagnosis among infants exposed to SARS-CoV-2 in utero was 1.86 (95% CI, 1.03 to 3.36).