Characteristics and Outcomes of COVID-19 in Reproductive-Aged Pregnant and Nonpregnant Women in Osaka, Japan

Objective: To describe the clinical characteristics and outcomes of reproductive-aged female patients with coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19). Methods: We conducted a retrospective study of female patients aged 10-49 years, diagnosed with COVID-19 in Osaka, Japan, between January and November 2020. We assessed their epidemiological and clinical characteristics according to their pregnancy status. Results: A total of 4,156 patients were enrolled, of whom 29 (0.7%) were pregnant. Most patients exhibited mild symptoms, and 10.8% of the cases were asymptomatic. No moderate or severe cases were observed in pregnant women, whereas only 0.1% of the nonpregnant women had severe disease at diagnosis. No clusters were observed in the pregnant patients; however, most acquired the infection from a family member. Of the 29 pregnant women, 22 (75.9%) were hospitalized; whereas among the nonpregnant women, 579 (14.0%) were hospitalized ( p < 0.001). No patients were admitted to the intensive care unit, and there were no deaths among women aged 10-49 years. Conclusions: Pregnant women accounted for 0.7% of the total cases of COVID-19 among women aged 10-49 years. Pregnant women were more likely to be hospitalized but generally had mild disease. (c) 2022 The Author(s). Published by Elsevier Ltd on behalf of International Society for Infectious Diseases. This is an open access article under the CC BY-NC-ND license ( http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/ )