Norwegian study finds limited link between prenatal COVID-19 and neurodevelopmental risks, but notes speech and language concerns during early pandemic

A large Norwegian study of over 200,000 children reports no consistent increase in neurodevelopmental risks associated with maternal COVID-19 infection during pregnancy, though a higher occurrence of speech and language disorders was observed among those exposed early in the pandemic.

A large Norwegian study has found no consistent sign that COVID-19 infection during pregnancy raises the overall risk of neurodevelopmental or neurological disorders in children, although researchers did see a higher rate of speech and language disorders in those exposed early in the pandemic, according to JAMA Network Open.

The study followed 204,663 children born between March 2020 and December 2023, making it one of the largest analyses of its kind. Across the full group, maternal SARS-CoV-2 infection was not linked to autism, motor problems, intellectual disability, epilepsy or sensory impairment. But when the researchers narrowed their analysis to the period before March 2022, when PCR testing was widely required, they found a 2.22 times higher risk of speech or language disorders among exposed children.

The findings add to a mixed but increasingly detailed body of research on prenatal COVID-19 exposure. A separate JAMA Network Open study that tracked 2,003 pregnant people and their infants found no meaningful differences in early developmental screening scores through 24 months in areas including communication, motor skills and social development. By contrast, an earlier JAMA report said children exposed in utero to maternal COVID-19 infection had a higher risk of neurodevelopmental disorders by age three, underscoring that the evidence has not been uniform.

Researchers in the Norwegian study suggested several possible explanations for the speech-language signal, including fetal immune activation or the wider disruptions of the pandemic, which may have reduced early language exposure at home and in social settings. The authors said the results should be replicated in other populations and settings.