Babies born to mothers who had COVID-19 while pregnant may be at higher than average risk for problems with brain development involved in learning, focusing, remembering, and developing social skills, researchers have found.

研究人员发现，孕妇感染新冠，其婴儿在学习、专注力、记忆和培养社交技能方面出现大脑发育问题的风险可能高于平均水平。

They studied 7,772 infants delivered in Massachusetts between March and September 2020, tracking the babies until age 12 months. During that time, 14.4% of the babies born to the 222 women with a positive coronavirus test during pregnancy were diagnosed with a neurodevelopmental disorder, compared to 8.7% of babies whose mothers avoided the virus while pregnant. After accounting for other neurodevelopmental risk factors, including preterm delivery, SARS-CoV-2 infection during pregnancy was linked with an 86% higher risk of a neurodevelopmental disorder diagnosis in offspring, the researchers reported on Thursday in JAMA Network Open. The risk was more than doubled when the infection occurred in the third trimester.

他们的研究对象是2020年3月至9月在马萨诸塞州分娩的7772名婴儿，对这些婴儿进行追踪研究直到他们满一周岁。在此期间，222名新冠病毒检测呈阳性的孕妇所产婴儿中有14.4%被诊为神经发育障碍，而未感染新冠病毒的孕妇所产婴儿中只有8.7%。研究人员6月9日在《美国医学会杂志网络开放》上发文称，在考虑了早产等其他神经发育风险因素后，女性孕期感染新冠病毒，其后代的神经发育障碍确诊风险高86%。当感染发生在妊娠晚期时，这种风险增加了一倍多。

The researchers point out that their study was brief and cannot rule out the possibility that additional neurodevelopmental effects will become apparent as the children grow up. On the other hand, they note, larger and more rigorous studies are needed to rule out other potential causes and prove that the coronavirus is to blame.

研究人员指出，这些研究时间很短，不能排除随着婴儿的成长，其他神经发育影响可能会变得明显。另一方面，他们指出，需要进行更大规模和更严格的研究，以排除其他潜在原因，并证明新冠病毒是罪魁祸首。