COVID-19 infection during pregnancy: a systematic review to summarize possible symptoms, treatments, and pregnancy outcomes

  1. Md. Mostaured Ali Khan
  2. Md. Nuruzzaman Khan
  3. Md. Golam Mustagir
  4. Juwel Rana
  5. Md. Rajwanul Haque
  6. Md. Mosfequr Rahman

Reviewed by

Read the full article See related articles

Listed in

Log in to save this article

Abstract

Background

With the exponential increase in coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) worldwide, an increasing proportion of pregnant women are now infected during their pregnancy. The aims of this systematic review were to summarize the possible symptoms, treatments, and pregnancy outcomes of women infected with COVID-19 during their pregnancy.

Methods

Four databases (Medline, Web of Science, Scopus, and CINAHL) were searched on March 25, 2020, using the following keywords: “COVID-19”, “nCoV-2019”, and “coronavirus.” Articles included if they reported either the symptoms, treatments for the women who had been infected with the COVID-19 during their pregnancy or pregnancy outcomes. The selected articles’ results were summarized employing a narrative synthesis approach.

Results

A total of nine studies were selected for this study, comprising 101 infected pregnant women. Other than the infected general population, infected pregnant women reported different symptoms; however, fever (66.7%), cough (39.4%), fatigue (15.2%), and breathing difficulties (14.1%) were common. Infected pregnant women were given different treatments than the general infected population. The C-section was a common (83.9%) mode of delivery among infected pregnant women, and a higher proportion of births were preterm births (30.4%) and low birth weight (17.9%).

Conclusions

Pregnant infected women had different symptoms, and they were given dissimilar treatments than the general infected population. Healthcare providers may have appropriately informed about these symptoms and treatments. They, therefore, would be able to handle infection during pregnancy effectively, which would reduce common adverse consequences among infected pregnant women.

Article activity feed

  1. ScreenIT

    SciScore for 10.1101/2020.03.31.20049304: (What is this?)

    Please note, not all rigor criteria are appropriate for all manuscripts.

    Table 1: Rigor

    Institutional Review Board Statementnot detected.
    Randomizationnot detected.
    Blindingnot detected.
    Power Analysisnot detected.
    Sex as a biological variableRelevant and available studies related to COVID-19 infection among pregnant women were included.

    Table 2: Resources

    Software and Algorithms
    SentencesResources
    Search strategy: Systematic computerized literature searches of the Medline, Web of Science, Scopus, and CINAHL databases were conducted on March 25, 2020.
    Medline
    suggested: (MEDLINE, RRID:SCR_002185)

    Results from OddPub: We did not detect open data. We also did not detect open code. Researchers are encouraged to share open data when possible (see Nature blog).

    Results from LimitationRecognizer: We detected the following sentences addressing limitations in the study:
    This study has several strengths and limitations. This is the first study of its kind that highlight the symptoms, treatments, and pregnancy outcomes among women who have been infected with COVID-19. These findings may help healthcare providers to take proper initiatives. We did not set any time and study design restrictions that allowed us to include a higher number of studies. However, the major limitation is generalizability because all included studies were conducted in China. Different treatments may be used to treat COVID-19 during pregnancy in other countries. Moreover, none of the included studies reported quantitative data that restrict us to conduct a narrative synthesis of the selected study’s findings rather than given any pool estimates. Despite these limitations, this study has enough merits, which will make healthcare providers informed about the symptoms, treatments, and possible outcomes in pregnant women detected with COVID-19.

    Results from TrialIdentifier: No clinical trial numbers were referenced.

    Results from Barzooka: We did not find any issues relating to the usage of bar graphs.

    Results from JetFighter: We did not find any issues relating to colormaps.

    Results from rtransparent:
    • Thank you for including a conflict of interest statement. Authors are encouraged to include this statement when submitting to a journal.
    • Thank you for including a funding statement. Authors are encouraged to include this statement when submitting to a journal.
    • No protocol registration statement was detected.

    About SciScore

    SciScore is an automated tool that is designed to assist expert reviewers by finding and presenting formulaic information scattered throughout a paper in a standard, easy to digest format. SciScore checks for the presence and correctness of RRIDs (research resource identifiers), and for rigor criteria such as sex and investigator blinding. For details on the theoretical underpinning of rigor criteria and the tools shown here, including references cited, please follow this link.

  2. Version published to 10.1101/2020.03.31.20049304v2 on medRxiv
  3. Version published to 10.1101/2020.03.31.20049304v1 on medRxiv