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New research based on an analysis of data from a large U.S. health care database suggests that in-hospital mortality is low in pregnant women with COVID-19. The retrospective cohort study is published in
Annals of Internal Medicine.
Previous reports suggested an increased risk for death in pregnant women with COVID-19 compared to nonpregnant women of reproductive age. However, these studies may have been limited by factors such as registries with a significant proportion of missing data and biased case ascertainment.
Researchers from the University of Maryland School of Medicine and The University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston studied data from the Premier Healthcare Database, an all-payer data repository that captures 20% of U.S. hospitalizations, to evaluate the risk for in-hospital death among pregnant and nonpregnant patients of reproductive age hospitalized with COVID-19. The cohort consisted of 1,062 pregnant and 9,815 nonpregnant patients aged 15 to 45 hospitalized with COVID-19 and viral pneumonia from April to November 2020. The data showed that in-hospital death occurred in 0.8% of pregnant patients and 3.5% of nonpregnant patients. Among the subgroup of patients admitted to an intensive care unit, in-hospital mortality was 3.5% in pregnant patients and 14.9% in nonpregnant patients. Among those who received mechanical ventilation, in-hospital death occurred in 8.6% of pregnant patients and 31.4% of nonpregnant patients. Of note, pregnant patients were less likely to have most comorbid conditions, including hypertension, chronic pulmonary disease, diabetes, and obesity.