ReviewJournal of the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry2025
Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis: The Associations of Prenatal Exposure to SARS-CoV-2 Infection and COVID-19 Vaccination With Child Neurodevelopment.
Review in Journal of the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, 2025. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 1 paper.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
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
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
1 citing paper in PubMed.
- Maternal SARS-CoV-2 infection during pregnancy and child neurodevelopmental outcomes: A systematic review and meta-analysis of observational studies.Preventive medicine reports · 2026Review
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
9 authors.
Funding
Abstract
objectiveTo systematically review and meta-analyze evidence on the associations between prenatal exposure to severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus-2 (SARS-CoV-2) infection or COVID-19 vaccination and child neurodevelopmental outcomes.
methodMEDLINE, EMBASE, PsycINFO, Web of Science, Scopus, and Cochrane CENTRAL databases were searched for original research on neurodevelopmental outcomes in children prenatally exposed to SARS-CoV-2 infection and COVID-19 vaccination published in any language before November 8, 2024. Meta-analyses were performed on any outcome reported in ≥3 controlled studies.
resultsA total of 70 studies were identified on neurological (7), neuroimaging (12), motor (3), audiological (29), and neurodevelopmental (35) assessments and neurodevelopmental disorders (2) with median sample sizes of 117 (interquartile range: 44-340) and follow-up ≤36 months. Meta-analyses of neonatal auditory screenings (10), Ages and Stages Questionnaire, 3rd Edition (9), and Ages and Stages Questionnaire: Social-Emotional (3) data suggested a higher risk of transient hearing impairment (risk ratio 2.01, 95% CI 1.39-2.91) and delays in fine motor (risk ratio 1.55, 95% CI 1.14-2.10) and problem-solving (risk ratio 1.32, 95% CI 1.01-1.74) skills in children prenatally exposed to SARS-CoV-2 compared with unexposed children.
conclusionPrenatal SARS-CoV-2 exposure was associated with early impairments in hearing, fine motor skills, and problem-solving skills, which appear to resolve with time. No associations were identified with atypical neurological or neuroimaging outcomes. No adverse neurodevelopmental effects were reported in 2 studies that examined prenatal COVID-19 vaccination. Study quality was generally moderate, with small sample sizes, inappropriate control groups, and unmeasured confounding. Taken together, the current body of research does not support a causal relation between prenatal exposure to SARS-CoV-2 infection or COVID-19 vaccination and adverse neurodevelopmental outcomes. STUDY REGISTRATION INFORMATION: The Association of Intrauterine Exposure to SARS-CoV-2 and the COVID-19 Vaccine With Child Neurodevelopment: A Systematic Review; https://www.crd.york.ac.uk/PROSPERO/view/CRD42023451206.
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Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.