Overview
- Analyzing 18,124 births in the Mass General Brigham system (March 2020–May 2021), the study found a 29% increase in adjusted odds of a neurodevelopmental diagnosis by age 3 after maternal SARS-CoV-2 infection.
- Neurodevelopmental diagnoses occurred in 16.3% of children exposed in utero versus 9.7% of those unexposed, based on electronic health records.
- Autism was diagnosed in about 2.7% of exposed children compared with about 1.1% of unexposed peers, with speech and motor delays also noted.
- Risk signals were stronger for boys and when infection occurred in the third trimester, though authors stressed that absolute risk for any individual child remains low.
- The observational design cannot prove causation and potential confounders were not fully controlled, leading experts to call for prevention in pregnancy, continued developmental monitoring, and larger studies that include vaccinated populations.