https://orcid.org/0000-0002-6979-9530
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Abstract
Object
COVID-19 pandemic and worldwide quarantine seriously affected the physical and mental health of the general public. Our study aimed to investigate the effects of the COVID-19 quarantine on pregnancy outcomes among pregnant women with hypertensive disorders of pregnancy (HDP).
Methods
This single-center retrospective cohort study collected complete clinical data of HDP patients with a history of home quarantine in The First Affiliated Hospital of Chongqing Medical University (Chongqing, China) in 2020 as well as the patients without home quarantine in 2018 and 2019. Then, the maternal and neonatal outcomes of two subtypes of HDP, gestational hypertension (GH) and preeclampsia/eclampsia (PE/E), were analyzed over the three years.
Results
The incidence of HDP increased from 0.84% in 2018 and 0.51% in 2019 to 2.30% in 2020. The data suggested that home quarantine was associated with higher gestational weight gain, obesity rates, blood pressure, and uric acid among the patients with HDP in 2020. Furthermore, HDP patients with a history of home quarantine may have worse neonatal outcomes, including lower newborn weight, shorter body length, lower Apgar score, and higher risk of fetal growth restriction.
Conclusion
Our results suggested that COVID-19 quarantine may be a risk factor for poor pregnancy outcomes in HDP patients. Lifestyle guidance and antenatal care may be necessary for HDP patients with home quarantine in an epidemic outbreak.
Ethics Approval and Consent to Participate
This study was approved by the ethics committee of the First Affiliated Hospital of Chongqing Medical University (ID: 20200501). All participants provided verbal informed consent, which was documented in an Excel file and saved with a security code. At that particular time in 2020, all hospital staff were busy doing clinical work and had no time to obtain written informed consent from all participants. In addition, the pregnant women in 2018 and 2019 included in our cohort were contacted by phone and obtained their verbal informed consent. The Ethics Committee also approved the procedure for verbal informed consent of our study. The Ethics Society of Clinical Scientific Research permitted the visiting and use of the medical records described in our study. All the procedures were performed following the ethical standards of the institutional research committee and the 1964 Helsinki declaration and its later amendments.
Acknowledgments
The authors also thank all involved laboratory technicians for their help with data collection and analysis.
Author Contributions
All authors made a significant contribution to the work reported, whether that is in the conception, study design, execution, acquisition of data, analysis and interpretation, or in all these areas; took part in drafting, revising or critically reviewing the article; gave final approval of the version to be published; have agreed on the journal to which the article has been submitted; and agree to be accountable for all aspects of the work.
Disclosure
The authors declare that they have no conflicts of interest in this work.