Did COVID-19 impact perinatal outcomes differently in public and private maternity hospitals in Brazil?

To compare maternal and perinatal outcomes in pregnant and postpartum women with severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS- CoV-2) infection among admissions in public and private maternity hospitals before COVID-19 vaccination.

We performed a secondary analysis of the REBRACO (in Portuguese, the Brazilian Network of COVID-19 During Pregnancy) initiative, a national multicenter cohort study in Brazil, considering pregnant and postpartum women with suspected or confirmed SARS-CoV-2 infections (from February 2020 to February 2021) in 15 maternity centers (2 private and 13 public facilities). Sociodemographic and obstetric characteristics were compared according to the type of hospital care. The clinical and laboratory findings and maternal and perinatal outcomes were compared between the two groups. The prevalence ratio and its 95% confidence interval for each predictor and outcome were calculated.

Of the 559 symptomatic cases tested, 289 confirmed COVID-19 cases were included, with 213 (72.7%) and 76 (27.3%) women in public and private hospitals, respectively. The frequency of SARS-CoV-2 infection did not differ significantly between the groups. Women treated at public hospitals had lower education levels (p<0.001), and 50% declared that their pregnancy was unplanned. We recorded 13 maternal deaths among women treated at public hospitals and no maternal deaths among pregnant women treated at private hospitals (p=0.024). Pregnant women in public hospitals had higher rates of fever (p=0.041), tachypnea (p=0.003), abnormal laboratory findings of liver enzymes (p=0.005), and severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) (p=0.014), and their neonates presented with more neonatal respiratory distress (p=0.020).

Adverse maternal and perinatal outcomes were worse in the public hospital group, with increased rates of SARS and neonatal respiratory distress. The alarming difference in the number of deaths between patients treated in the public and private sectors highlights the urgency of better understanding the social determinants of health and calls the attention of leaders and policymakers to take action in mitigating their impact.