Author Interviews, COVID -19 Coronavirus, Nature, OBGYNE, Pediatrics / 28.02.2023
Murdoch Children’s Reports Surprising Finding on Preterm Births During COVID Lockdown
MedicalResearch.com Interview with:
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Dr. MIller[/caption]
Dr Jessica Miller, PhD
Murdoch Children’s Researcher and
Professor David Burgner,
Murdoch Children’s Group Leader, Infection and Immunity
Murdoch Children’s Research Institute
Royal Children's Hospital
Victoria Australia
MedicalResearch.com: What is the background for this study?
Response: Early reports following the initial COVID-19 lockdowns showed huge variation in changes to preterm birth and stillbirth rates, deeming it difficult to understand the pattern worldwide. It was uncertain if the observed variations were due to differences in study design and methodology, immediate impacts of lockdowns or changes in health service utilization. Previous reports from single populations or facilities were unlikely to be representative of the population and could not be compared across populations. Lockdowns affected health, social and economic factors that could lead to reductions in preterm birth rates. Changes in hygiene practices and abruptions to traffic following lockdown led to alterations in non-COVID infections and air pollution, which are known to trigger inflammation and contribute to preterm birth.
Given the uncertainty in the earlier reports, we aimed to conduct a rigorous, standardised analysis using high-quality, total-population data from across the world in order to summarize and compare rates across countries. Our large global study included 52 million births between 2015-2020 from 26 countries and represents one of the first large-scale analyses of birth outcomes during the early months of COVID-19.
Dr. MIller[/caption]
Dr Jessica Miller, PhD
Murdoch Children’s Researcher and
Professor David Burgner,
Murdoch Children’s Group Leader, Infection and Immunity
Murdoch Children’s Research Institute
Royal Children's Hospital
Victoria Australia
MedicalResearch.com: What is the background for this study?
Response: Early reports following the initial COVID-19 lockdowns showed huge variation in changes to preterm birth and stillbirth rates, deeming it difficult to understand the pattern worldwide. It was uncertain if the observed variations were due to differences in study design and methodology, immediate impacts of lockdowns or changes in health service utilization. Previous reports from single populations or facilities were unlikely to be representative of the population and could not be compared across populations. Lockdowns affected health, social and economic factors that could lead to reductions in preterm birth rates. Changes in hygiene practices and abruptions to traffic following lockdown led to alterations in non-COVID infections and air pollution, which are known to trigger inflammation and contribute to preterm birth.
Given the uncertainty in the earlier reports, we aimed to conduct a rigorous, standardised analysis using high-quality, total-population data from across the world in order to summarize and compare rates across countries. Our large global study included 52 million births between 2015-2020 from 26 countries and represents one of the first large-scale analyses of birth outcomes during the early months of COVID-19.
Dr. Gyamfi-Bannerman[/caption]
Cynthia Gyamfi-Bannerman, MD, MSc
Ellen Jacobson Levine and Eugene Jacobson
Professor of Women's Health in Obstetrics and Gynecology
Director, Maternal-Fetal Medicine Fellowship Program
Co-Director, CUMC Preterm Birth Prevention Center
Columbia University
MedicalResearch.com: What is the background for this study? What are the main findings?
Response: In 2016 our group published the findings of the Antenatal Late Preterm Steroids (ALPS) trial in the NEJM. We found that administration of antenatal corticosteroids to women at high risk for delivery from 34-36 weeks decreased breathing problems in their neonates. This treatment had been traditionally only given at less than 34 weeks.
The current paper is a cost analysis of that trial. We found that the treatment was also cost effective. From a cost perspective treatment was both low cost and highly effective (the options are low cost, low effect/low cost/high effect, high cost/low effect, high cost/high effect). 
Josephine Funck Bilsteen, MSc
Department of Pediatrics, Hvidovre University Hospital, Hvidovre,
Section of Epidemiology, Department of Public Health
University of Copenhagen
Copenhagen, Denmark
MedicalResearch.com: What is the background for this study? What are the main findings?
Response: The background of this study is that there is increasing recognition of the longer-term health and social outcomes associated with preterm birth such as independent living, quality of life, self-perception and socioeconomic achievements. However, much less is known about differences in education and income among adults born at different gestational weeks in the term period.
In this study shorter gestational duration, even within the term range, was associated with lower chances of having a high personal income and having completed a secondary or tertiary education at age 28 years. This is the first study to show that adults born at 37 and 38 completed weeks of gestation had slightly lower chances of having a high income and educational level than adults born at 40 completed weeks of gestation. 
