Study suggests COVID-19 during pregnancy may increase risk of autism

Study suggests COVID-19 during pregnancy may increase risk of autism

Tanya Lewis Editor Jeanna Bryner

A new study suggests that people who contract COVID-19 during pregnancy are more likely to have children who are later diagnosed with autism or another neurodevelopmental disorder. The findings add to previous research showing that infections during pregnancy, among other factors, are generally associated with a child’s risk of autism. However, we are not suggesting that everyone who gets COVID-19 during pregnancy will have a child with autism.

“Even though the risk of autism and other neurodevelopmental disorders is increased, the absolute risk is still relatively low, especially for autism.” Andrea Edlow, senior author of the study and a maternal-fetal medicine specialist at Massachusetts General Hospital, commented on COVID-19 during pregnancy.

For the study published Thursday. obstetrics and gynecology, Edlow and colleagues examined electronic health records for more than 18,000 births. These incidents occurred between March 1, 2020, and May 31, 2021, the first year of the COVID-19 pandemic. They compared the likelihood of a neurodevelopmental diagnosis in children born to individuals who tested positive for COVID-19 PCR during pregnancy with those who did not.

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Among the 861 children born to people infected with COVID-19 during pregnancy, 16.3% were diagnosed with neurodevelopment by age 3, while 9.7% of the 17,263 children born to people who were not infected with COVID-19 were diagnosed with neurodevelopment. Diagnoses included not only autism, but also language impairment, motor dysfunction and other conditions. When researchers controlled for a variety of confounding factors, COVID-19 infection during pregnancy was associated with a nearly 30% increased risk of developing the condition.

This discovery adds to a growing body of evidence, primarily in animals but also in humans. infection during pregnancyIllnesses such as influenza and rubella are associated with: Higher risk of having a child with autism or similar conditions. Because SARS-CoV-2 rarely crosses the placenta, scientists assume it is not the virus itself that increases the risk. Rather, they suspect that immune activation in pregnant women may be the cause.

Kristina Adams Waldorf, professor of obstetrics and gynecology and associate professor of global health at the University of Washington, said the new study and previous animal studies suggest that different types of maternal infection or inflammation can send signals to the fetus, affecting its brain development. Adams Waldorf co-authored a study that followed 1.7 million people born in Sweden for up to 41 years and found higher rates of autism and depression in those exposed to infections in utero.

The strongest link in the new study was for coronavirus infection in the third trimester of pregnancy and male offspring. (For female offspring, the increase in odds was not significant.) The third trimester is a critical time for fetal brain development, and boys are generally more likely to be diagnosed with autism than girls.

However, the study has limitations. Brian Lee, a professor of epidemiology at Drexel University who has studied the link between infections during pregnancy and autism, said researchers did not control for maternal health. People with worse physical health and mental disabilities are more likely to have children with neurodevelopmental conditions and are more vulnerable to serious COVID-19 infections, he said.

The study also did not specifically control for vaccination status, but because COVID vaccines were not widely available at the time, few individuals were vaccinated during the study period. Previous research has shown that vaccination protects pregnant women and their fetuses, who are at higher risk of becoming seriously ill or dying from COVID-19, from the disease.

The findings follow controversial comments by President Trump and Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. linking Tylenol (acetaminophen) to autism. The best available evidence does not support this. Numerous studies have also shown that vaccines do not cause autism.

It is important to remember that autism is a complex condition with many contributing factors, not all of which cause the disorder. Genetic factors are thought to have the greatest influence, but environmental factors, such as infections, may also play a role.

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