Prenatal exposure to gestational diabetes is associated with anxiety and physical inactivity in children during COVID ‐19

  1. Jasmin M. Alves
  2. Alexandra G. Yunker
  3. Alexis DeFendis
  4. Anny H. Xiang
  5. Kathleen A. Page

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Abstract

Background

The coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID‐19) is associated with adverse child mental health outcomes and reduced physical activity. Moreover, prenatal exposure to gestational diabetes (GDM) is associated with increased risk for adverse psychological outcomes in children.

Objectives

Assess prenatal exposure to GDM on anxiety levels and physical activity in children during the COVID‐19 pandemic.

Methods

Sixty‐five children age 9 to 15 reported their physical activity and anxiety levels using the 24‐hours physical activity recall and the State‐Trait Anxiety Inventory for Children via phone or video meetings. Prenatal exposure to GDM was obtained from maternal electronic medical records.

Results

The 38 GDM‐exposed children reported significantly higher anxiety levels and were less likely to engage in any vigorous physical activity (VPA) (5% vs 30%) compared to the 27 GDM‐unexposed children. Lower levels of physical activity were significantly associated with higher levels of anxiety. Less engagement in VPA explained 75% of the association between GDM exposure and anxiety levels.

Conclusions

Engaging in physical activity during the COVID‐19 pandemic may be beneficial for reducing anxiety, particularly amongst GDM‐exposed children.

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    SciScore for 10.1101/2020.08.06.20169565: (What is this?)

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

    Table 1: Rigor

    Institutional Review Board StatementIRB: Institutional Review Boards (IRB) at the University of Southern California (#HS-15-00540) and KPSC (#10282) approved this study.
    Randomizationnot detected.
    Blindingnot detected.
    Power Analysisnot detected.
    Sex as a biological variablenot 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.

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  2. Version published to 10.1111/cob.12422
  3. Version published to 10.1101/2020.08.06.20169565v1 on medRxiv