But overall neurodevelopment not changed by the COVID-19 pandemic<\/p>\n<\/h3>\n
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\n\tTUESDAY, Nov. 1, 2022 (HealthDay News) — Infants born or being raised during the COVID-19 pandemic have communication impairment compared with infants born before the pandemic, according to a systematic review and meta-analysis published online Oct. 28 in JAMA Network Open<\/em>.\n<\/p>\n \n\tKamran Hessami, M.D., from Boston Children s Hospital, and colleagues conducted a systematic literature review to identify studies evaluating associations of birth and being raised during the COVID-19 pandemic with the risk for neurodevelopmental impairment among infants.\n<\/p>\n \n\tBased on eight included studies (11,438 infants screened during the pandemic and 9,981 prepandemic [2015 to 2019]), the researchers found that neurodevelopmental impairment was present in 7 percent of infants screened during the COVID-19 pandemic. The prevalence of neurodevelopmental impairment among infants in the pandemic cohort with gestational exposure to severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) was 12 percent. Infants in the pandemic cohort were more likely to have communication impairment (odds ratio, 1.70), without significant differences in the domains of gross motor, fine motor, personal-social, and problem-solving compared with infants in the prepandemic cohort. Maternal SARS-CoV-2 infection was not associated with significant differences in any neurodevelopment domain in offspring, except for fine motor impairment (odds ratio, 3.46).\n<\/p>\n \n\t“These findings suggest that overall neurodevelopment was not changed by the COVID-19 pandemic, but birth or being raised during the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic, regardless of gestational exposure, was associated with a significant risk of communication impairment among the infants,” the authors write.\n<\/p>\n \n\tAbstract\/Full Text<\/a>\n<\/p>\n