Racial disparities in prevalence, determinants, and impacts of COVID-19 in pregnancy: Protocol for a study using data from New Jersey hospitals

  1. Slawa Rokicki
  2. Pauline Nguyen
  3. Alaine Sharpe
  4. Dyese Taylor
  5. Suzanne Spernal
  6. Archana Raghunath
  7. Leslie Kantor

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Abstract

Introduction

Racial and ethnic disparities in COVID-19 related infections, hospitalizations, and deaths have been well-documented. However, little research has examined racial and ethnic disparities in COVID-19 prevalence, determinants, and impacts among pregnant women. Within the United States, New Jersey was an early epicenter of the pandemic and experienced high rates of disease in the fall of 2020.

Methods

This study uses data from two New Jersey hospitals, which implemented universal testing of COVID-19 of pregnant women admitted for labor and delivery starting in March 2020. We will estimate prevalence of COVID-19 between March 2020 and November 2020 and compare prevalence rates across race and ethnicity. We will conduct multivariable logistic regression analysis to examine the associations of COVID-19 infection with patient demographic and health status predictors. We will also use multivariable linear and logistic regressions to examine the impact of COVID-19 symptomatic and asymptomatic infection on maternal and infant birth outcomes.

Discussion

This study will generate important policy implications on birth equity in the time of COVID-19 and guide future research studies related to COVID-19 in pregnant women. Results of this study will help to guide interventions and policies to center safe, accessible, and equitable maternity care within the strategic response to the pandemic.

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    SciScore for 10.1101/2021.05.23.21257672: (What is this?)

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

    Table 1: Rigor

    EthicsIRB: Ethics approvals and data security considerations: Institutional Review Board (IRB) approvals have been obtained at each institution (Rutgers School of Public Health ID# Pro2020002959; NBI IRB#2021.19; CMMC IRB R2021-01CMMC).
    Consent: As this study is a retrospective chart review, an exemption for consent to access patient data was obtained.
    Sex as a biological variableThe primary study objectives are: Secondary study objectives are: Study population: The study will use data from the electronic medical records (EMR) of all women who were admitted for labor and delivery experience at the Newark Beth Israel (NBI) and Clara Maass Medical Centers (CMMC), between March 17th, 2020 and November 20th, 2020.
    Randomizationnot detected.
    Blindingnot detected.
    Power Analysisnot detected.

    Table 2: Resources

    No key resources detected.

    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: An explicit section about the limitations of the techniques employed in this study was not found. We encourage authors to address study limitations.

    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.

    Results from scite Reference Check: We found no unreliable references.

    About SciScore

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  2. Version published to 10.1101/2021.05.23.21257672v1 on medRxiv