611 Racial, ethnic and socioeconomic disparities in susceptibility to SARS-CoV-2 in pregnancy

Haizler-Cohen, Lylach; Moncada, Kea; Collins, Ana; Davidov, Adi; Fruhman, Gary

Objective: There is growing interest in identifying individuals with a higher risk of SARS-CoV-2 infection. This is especially important in pregnancy due to concerns for adverse pregnancy outcomes and possible need for increased surveillance in infected women. Prior reports on differences in racial, ethnic and socioeconomic prevalence rates of SARS-CoV-2 in pregnancy are based on detection of viral RNA in clinical specimens. Disease confirmation via antibody status may be a more accurate method to assess susceptibility in pregnancy since it represents both present and past infection. This study aims to correlate racial, ethnic and socioeconomic characteristics with SARS-CoV-2 antibody results in pregnancy. Study Design: This is a retrospective chart review of women who were admitted to L&D in seven hospitals in the Northwell Health System in NY state between 5/27/20 to 8/23/20. Women with available SARS-CoV-2 antibody results were included. Race and ethnicity were categorized into the following groups: non-Hispanic African-American, Asian, non-Hispanic White, Hispanic and Other/Multiracial. Socioeconomic status was categorized to low and middle/high groups based on medical insurance. Categorical data were analyzed using 2-tailed chi square tests with adjusted standardized residuals to detect differences between groups. Results: Of 2921 women with available SARS-CoV-2 antibody results, 446 (15.3%) were seropositive and 2475 (84.7%) were seronegative. The racial, ethnic and socioeconomic frequencies are presented in the tables. Non-Hispanic African-American and Hispanic women had a higher SARS-CoV-2 seroprevalence rate while Asian and non-Hispanic White women had a lower seroprevalence rate, p=0.00. Women in the low socioeconomic group were disproportionately affected by SARS-CoV-2 compared to women in the middle/high socioeconomic group, p=0.00. Conclusion: Susceptibility to SARS-CoV-2 in pregnancy may be affected by race, ethnicity and socioeconomic status. Our findings are consistent with those of prior studies and support the presence of racial disparities in risk for infection. [Formula presented] [Formula presented]