Predictors of severe and critical disease in pregnant women with SARS-CoV-2

Abstract

Background/Objective

SARS-CoV-2 continues to spread widely in the US and worldwide. Pregnant women are more likely to develop severe or critical illness than their non-pregnant counterparts. Known risk factors for severe and critical disease outside of pregnancy, such as asthma, diabetes, and obesity have not been well-studied in pregnancy. We aimed to determine which clinical and pregnancy-related factors were associated with severe and critical COVID illness in pregnancy.

Study design

This was a retrospective cohort study of women with confirmed intrauterine pregnancy and positive nasopharyngeal swab for SARS-CoV-2 who presented to an academic medical center in New York City from 1 March 2020 to 1 July 2020. Severe and critical COVID-19 disease was defined by World Health Organization criteria. Women with severe/critical disease were compared to women with asymptomatic/mild disease. Continuous variables were compared with Mann–Whitney or t-test and categorical variables were compared using chi-square and Fisher’s exact. Statistical significance was set at p < .05. Multivariable logistic regression was performed including variables that were significantly different between groups.

Results

Two hundred and thirty-three patients were included, 186 (79.8%) with asymptomatic/mild disease and 47 (20.2%) with severe/critical disease. Women with asymptomatic/mild disease were compared to those with severe/critical disease. Women with severe/critical disease were more likely to have a history of current or former smoking (19.6 vs. 5.4%, p = .004), COVID-19 diagnosis in the 2nd trimester (42.6 vs. 11.8%, p = .001), and asthma or other respiratory condition (21.3 vs. 7.0%, p = .01). Women with severe/critical disease were more likely to have cesarean delivery (35.5 vs. 15.6%, p < .01) and preterm delivery <37 weeks (25.8 vs. 3.8%, p < .01). After adjustment, history of smoking remained significantly predictive of severe/critical disease [aOR 3.84 (95% CI, 1.25–11.82)].

Conclusion

Pregnant women with a history of smoking, asthma, or other respiratory condition, and COVID-19 diagnosis in the second trimester of pregnancy were more likely to develop severe/critical disease. These findings may be useful in counseling women on their individual risk of developing the severe or critical disease in pregnancy and may help determine which women are good candidates for vaccination during pregnancy.

Keywords:

• COVID 19
• pregnancy
• infection
• severe disease
• infectious disease

Disclosure statement

The authors report no conflict of interest.

Author contributions

All authors contributed to the study conception and design. Data collection and analysis were performed by Megan E. Trostle, Meghana Limaye, Pooja Venkatesh, Meralis Lantigua Martinez, Lili Wei, Parita Sahani, Tracy B. Grossman, and Jessica A. Meyer. The first draft of the manuscript was written by Meghana Limaye and all authors commented on previous versions of the manuscript. All authors read and approved the final manuscript.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by funds from New York University Grossman School of Medicine.