ArticleBMC pediatrics2023
Changes in birth outcomes and utilization of prenatal care during the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020: a secondary analysis of vital statistics in Colombia.
Article in BMC pediatrics, 2023. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 3 papers.
What it found
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The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
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Who cites it
3 citing papers in PubMed, 5 citations in OpenAlex.
- Stillbirths in Colombia before and during the COVID-19 pandemic: analysis by geographic location and health insurance.BMC public health · 2026Article
- Socioeconomic inequalities in infant mortality in Colombia: a nationwide cohort study during 10 years.BMJ global health · 2025Article
- Effect of COVID-19 on Brazilian cesarean and prematurity rates: a cross-sectional study.Revista brasileira de ginecologia e obstetricia : revista da Federacao Brasileira das Sociedades de Ginecologia e Obstetricia · 2025Article
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
3 authors at 3 institutions in 2 countries.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
backgroundBirth outcomes could have been affected by the COVID-19 pandemic through changes in access to prenatal services and other pathways. The aim of this study was to examine the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic on fetal death, birth weight, gestational age, number of prenatal visits, and caesarean delivery in 2020 in Colombia.
methodsWe conducted a secondary analysis of data on 3,140,010 pregnancies and 2,993,534 live births from population-based birth certificate and fetal death certificate records in Colombia between 2016 and 2020. Outcomes were compared separately for each month during 2020 with the same month in 2019 and pre-pandemic trends were examined in regression models controlling for maternal age, educational level, marital status, type of health insurance, place of residence (urban/rural), municipality of birth, and the number of pregnancies the mother has had before last pregnancy.
resultsWe found some evidence for a decline in miscarriage risk in some months after the pandemic start, while there was an apparent lagging increase in stillbirth risk, although not statistically significant after correction for multiple comparisons. Birth weight increased during the onset of the pandemic, a change that does not appear to be driven by pre-pandemic trends. Specifically, mean birth weight was higher in 2020 than 2019 for births in April through December by about 12 to 21 g (p < 0.01). There was also a lower risk of gestational age at/below 37 weeks in 2020 for two months following the pandemic (April, June), but a higher risk in October. Finally, there was a decline in prenatal visits in 2020 especially in June-October, but no evidence of a change in C-section delivery.
conclusionsThe study findings suggest mixed early effects of the pandemic on perinatal outcomes and prenatal care utilization in Colombia. While there was a significant decline in prenatal visits, other factors may have had counter effects on perinatal health including an increase in birth weight on average.
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Registered trials
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