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ORIGINAL RESEARCH article

Front. Endocrinol.
Sec. Clinical Diabetes
Volume 16 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/fendo.2025.1483962

Risk of Neonatal SARS-CoV-2 Infection: A Retrospective Cohort Study Based on Infected Mothers with Gestational Diabetes Mellitus

Provisionally accepted
Jing Ni Jing Ni 1Yongfei Zheng Yongfei Zheng 1Jiaqi Tian Jiaqi Tian 2Lin Zhang Lin Zhang 2Shuyin Duan Shuyin Duan 1*
  • 1 School of Public Health, Shandong First Medical University & Shandong Academy of Medical Sciences, Taian, Shandong, China
  • 2 Qingdao University, Qingdao, Shandong Province, China

The final, formatted version of the article will be published soon.

    The COVID-19 pandemic has posed unprecedented challenges to global public health, especially for pregnant women and their offspring. However, little is known about the impact of maternal SARS-CoV-2 infection on neonatal outcomes, particularly in the context of coexisting gestational diabetes mellitus (GDM).Methods: Hospitalized pregnant women with SARS-CoV-2 infection were retrospectively enrolled between November 2022 and January 2023, and matched with pregnant subjects free of SARS-CoV-2 infection based on their propensity scores. All women were tested for SARS-CoV-2 upon admission as part of routine procedures, then divided into groups of pregnant women with SARS-CoV-2 infection and GDM (SARS2+GDM), pregnant women with SARS-CoV-2 infection but without GDM (SARS2+noGDM), and pregnant women without SARS-CoV-2 infection or GDM (Normal group). A logistic regression model was used to study the risk of GDM, perinatal SARS-CoV-2 infection, and their interaction on neonatal SARS-CoV-2 infection.Results: Of 378 pregnant women with SARS-CoV-2 infection, the neonatal infection rate was higher in the GDM group as compared to the SARS-CoV-2 infection only group, but both SARS-CoV-2 infection rates were lower than that of the normal control group. Logistic regression analysis identified an interaction between maternal SARS-CoV-2 infection and GDM on neonatal infection, where maternal SARS-CoV-2 infection (odds ratio [OR] = 0.31, 95%CI: 0.22-0.44) and vaccination for anti-SARS-CoV-2 (OR = 0.70, 95%CI: 0.50-0.98) were associated with lower odds of neonatal infection, while higher pre-pregnancy body mass index (BMI) (OR = 1.06, 95% CI: 1.02-1.10), gestational age at delivery (OR = 1.12, 95%CI: 1.01-1.27), and GDM (OR = 1.97, 95%CI: 1.21-3.21) were associated with higher odds of neonatal infection.We demonstrate that GDM alone was not associated with neonatal SARS-CoV-2 infection, while the interaction of GDM and perinatal SARS-CoV-2 infection was associated with an increased probability of neonatal SARS-CoV-2 infection.

    Keywords: COVID-19 pandemic, Infection, Pregnancy, gestational diabetes mellitus, Neonatal susceptibility

    Received: 21 Aug 2024; Accepted: 13 Jan 2025.

    Copyright: © 2025 Ni, Zheng, Tian, Zhang and Duan. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.

    * Correspondence: Shuyin Duan, School of Public Health, Shandong First Medical University & Shandong Academy of Medical Sciences, Taian, Shandong, China

    Disclaimer: All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations, or those of the publisher, the editors and the reviewers. Any product that may be evaluated in this article or claim that may be made by its manufacturer is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher.