Frequent office visits not associated with SARS-CoV-2 infection among pregnant patients
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Study results published in JAMA demonstrated no link between frequent in-person obstetrical visits and SARS-CoV-2 infection.
“A major concern throughout the pandemic has been patient avoidance of necessary medical care due to fear of contracting the disease in a health care setting,” Sharon C. Reale, MD, an anesthesiologist at Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston, told Healio. “However, little was known about whether in-person health care visits really did increase the risk of disease.”
Reale and colleagues assessed the rate of infection among mothers involved in 2,968 deliveries at four hospitals in Boston from April 19 through June 27. Among the women, 3.7% (95% CI, 3.1%-4.5%) tested positive for SARS-CoV-2 — 45 antenatally and 66 at the time of admission.
Excluding those who resided outside of Massachusetts and those with missing data, the researchers matched the remaining 93 cases with 372 controls. They found that the mean number of in-person visits per patient was 3.1 (SD, 2.2; range, 0-10), and 3.3 for controls (SD, 2.3; range, 0-16), for an OR of 0.93 (95% CI, 0.8-1.08).
“Our study found no association between the number of in-person health care visits and SARS-CoV-2 infection,” Reale said. “These results should be reassuring to patients and physicians that necessary, in-person care can be safely provided.”
Reale said that it was beyond the scope of the study to definitely determine why in-person visits are safe, but one can assume that mitigation policies help.
“Our health care system adopted a policy of universal masking of all providers and patients for most of the study period, which may be a reason we didn’t see an increase in risk of infection with clinic or hospital visits,” she said.
The authors said future studies are needed to determine if the findings apply to other populations and health care settings.
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