Journal of Women's Health Care
Open Access

Abstract

Adverse Birth Outcomes and Associated Factors among Women with COVID-19 admitted at Eka-Kotebe General Hospital: Retrospective chart review

Lia Solomon Mogus*, Meti Temesgen Negassa, Erko Chala Beyene, Eden Workalemahu Abeje and Tsegaye Gebreyes Hundie

Background: The COVID-19 pandemic has been a global health crisis since its first detection in China in December 2019. The number of people affected by COVID-19 is immense, causing staggering mortality and morbidity figures. Pregnant and recently pregnant women with COVID- 19 attending or admitted to the hospitals are more likely to develop severe illness compared to non-pregnant women of reproductive age. Data from MERS, SARS-CoV-1, and COVID-19 suggest that infection in pregnancy is associated with a high prevalence of preterm birth, stillbirth and other birth outcomes.

Objective: To assess adverse birth outcomes and associated factors among pregnant women with COVID-19 admitted at Eka Kotebe General Hospital, Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, from March 2020 to February 2022.

Methods: A retrospective chart review study was conducted on pregnant women admitted to Eka Kotebe General Hospital from March 2020 to March 2022. A structured data collection tool was used to collect all the necessary data from the patient's medical records. The association between adverse birth and determinant variables was analyzed using Binary Logistic Regression. The adequacy of the final model was assessed using the Hosmer and Lemeshow goodness of fit test and the final model fitted the data well p-value=0.355).

Results: A total of 208 pregnant women with positive COVID-19 who had delivered in the study area were included in this study. Pregnancy Associated Hypertension (CI 95% 2.386, 22.360, p-value=0.000) and Severe COVID-19 (AOR 3.840 (CI 95% 1.517, 9.722, p-value=0.005) were found to be significantly associated with adverse birth outcomes in women with COVID-19.

Conclusion: This study emphasizes the importance of providing adequate attention to pregnant women with COVID-19 in order to detect severity signs earlier. Furthermore, women with COVID-19 and pregnancy-related hypertension should be given special attention in order to avoid unfavourable birth outcomes.

Published Date: 2023-01-05; Received Date: 2022-12-08