{"id":10242,"date":"2024-12-14T06:00:00","date_gmt":"2024-12-14T11:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/cov19longhaulfoundation.org\/?p=10242"},"modified":"2024-07-21T06:20:39","modified_gmt":"2024-07-21T11:20:39","slug":"covid-social-distancing-linked-to-newborn-mortality-and-preterm-births-study-finds","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/cov19longhaulfoundation.org\/?p=10242","title":{"rendered":"COVID Social Distancing Linked To Newborn Mortality And Preterm Births, Study Finds"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

2024 – Authored by Marina Zhang via The Epoch Times\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Pandemic social distancing is linked to higher rates of preterm births and newborn deaths within one to two months<\/strong>, according to a new study.<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

In a study published Thursday in JAMA Network Open<\/a>, researchers at the University of Alabama at Birmingham (UAB) evaluated over 18 million births in Alabama from 2016 to 2020, comparing prepandemic years to the period after officials enacted public health restrictions in March 2020.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The link was not immediately apparent.<\/strong> However, when researchers examined neonatal mortality and preterm rates two months after social distancing was implemented in the population, they found a link between the population\u2019s social distancing behavior and neonatal mortality and preterm births. The neonatal period includes the first four weeks of a baby\u2019s life.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The study evaluated the \u201cunanticipated effects\u201d of social distancing on infant health outcomes, senior study author Dr. Vivek Shukla, a neonatologist and assistant professor in the UAB Division of Neonatology, told The Epoch Times via email.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The clinician-researcher said that more research is needed to get a more nuanced understanding of these associations.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThis study shows that, on a population level, there might be delayed effects of health interventions<\/strong>,\u201d he said. \u201cSometimes the effects of measures are not evident on the first day the measures are implemented.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

He added that the study only evaluated how social behavior might have related to health outcomes and did not examine how COVID-19 infections could affect a mother and her child.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Fewer Prenatal Visits<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

The authors said that their findings may be related to disrupted prenatal care and pregnancy complications.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

They observed that during the pandemic, there were fewer prenatal visits and medical checkups during pregnancy, which may have been linked to social distancing behaviors in the population.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThese appointments are important to catch and address complications that could be life-threatening to both mom and baby,\u201d co-author Dr. Rachel Sinkey, an associate professor in the UAB Division of Maternal\u2013Fetal Medicine, said in a press release.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

According to the American Medical Association<\/a>, 81 percent of physicians surveyed in July and August 2020 reported providing fewer in-person visits than before the pandemic. The average number of in-person visits fell from 95 to 57 per week.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Additionally, disease rates, including gestational diabetes, gestational hypertension, and induction of labor, as well as neonatal intensive-care unit (ICU) admission, were higher during the pandemic.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The study found that neonatal mortality rates were generally lower throughout the 2020 pandemic period, but there were slight increases in neonatal mortality and preterm births after the population became more adherent to social distancing practices.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cCOVID-19 affected the health care systems globally, and many lives were lost; it is important to learn from this experience to prepare better for possible future health crises,\u201d said Dr. Shukla.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe need to understand how changes in health behavior affected outcomes, whether people had limited access to care or healthy habits were altered.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Further Research Needed<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Since the study is only observational, no causal conclusions can be drawn from its findings.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe results indicate a need for more in-depth studies on the unintended effects of pandemic-related health behavior changes,\u201d Dr. Shukla said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

2024 – Authored by Marina Zhang via The Epoch Times\u00a0 Pandemic social distancing is linked to higher rates of preterm births and newborn deaths within one to two months, according […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":10244,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[333,426,951],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-10242","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-mortality-morbidity","category-pediatric-health-2","category-social-distancing"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/cov19longhaulfoundation.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10242","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/cov19longhaulfoundation.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/cov19longhaulfoundation.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cov19longhaulfoundation.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cov19longhaulfoundation.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=10242"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/cov19longhaulfoundation.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10242\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":10243,"href":"https:\/\/cov19longhaulfoundation.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10242\/revisions\/10243"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cov19longhaulfoundation.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/10244"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/cov19longhaulfoundation.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=10242"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cov19longhaulfoundation.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=10242"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cov19longhaulfoundation.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=10242"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}