Comparison of maternal and fetal health outcomes in the epidemic period
of covid-19 with the same last year duration in health centers of second
largest city of IRAN: a cohort study
Abstract
Objective: the exact link between COVID-19 pandemic and different
adverse outcomes of pregnancy remains unclear. Plus, large-scale
research is lacking. In the present study, we aimed to compare the
maternal and fetal health outcomes during the COVID-19 pandemic with the
same last year duration in Iran. Design: Two retrospective cohorts
(pre-COVID-19 and during COVID-19) were studied. The pre-COVID-19 cohort
include pregnant women who had given birth between 1 January 2019 and 31
December 2019. The COVID-19 cohort, who had given birth between 1
January 2020 and 31 December 2020. The characteristics of pregnant women
before COVID-19 and during COVID-19 pandemic were compared with Fisher’s
exact test. Uni-variate and multivariate log-binomial regression models
were used to determine the risk ratios of the impacts of the COVID-19
pandemic on adverse pregnancy outcomes. Results: among 128968 women
showed that women who had given birth during the pandemic were more
likely to be of young age, lower rates of alcohol consumption and
smoking, lower weight gain, and higher rates of using synthetic milk for
feeding neonates (P<0.05). Also, the risks of preterm labor
were high (cOR 95% CI, 1.13 to 1.31; p<0.01) and the risk of
caesarian were low (cOR 95% CI, 0.95 0.92 to 0.98; p<0.01)
among pregnant women who gave birth during the COVID-19 pandemic
compared with those who gave birth before the pandemic. Conclusions: In
summary, we found that during the COVID-19 pandemic there were the
higher risks of preterm labor and lower risk of caesarean among pregnant
women.