Being Pregnant during COVID-19: Exploring the COVID-19 Related Beliefs, Behaviors, and Birth Outcome among Users of a Pregnancy App

Hui Huang (), Olivia Ceavers, Maria Pinzon Iregui and Melissa M. Howard
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Hui Huang: School of Social Work, University of Texas at Arlington, Arlington, TX 76010, USA
Olivia Ceavers: Department of Health Promotion & Disease Prevention, Robert Stempel College of Public Health & Social Work, Florida International University, Miami, FL 33199, USA
Maria Pinzon Iregui: Department of Health Promotion & Disease Prevention, Robert Stempel College of Public Health & Social Work, Florida International University, Miami, FL 33199, USA
Melissa M. Howard: Department of Health Promotion and Behavior, College of Public Health, University of Georgia, Athens, GA 30602, USA

IJERPH, 2023, vol. 21, issue 1, 1-11

Abstract: Being pregnant during COVID-19 increases the risk of experiencing severe COVID-19 symptoms, which in turn increases the risk of complications. This study aimed to examine COVID-19-related beliefs, behaviors, and birth outcomes among users of Count the Kicks (CTK), a fetal movement tracking app. This study used the End of Pregnancy Survey data from 1037 CTK users. We used descriptive analyses to analyze COVID-19-related beliefs and behaviors and used the chi-square statistic and Z statistic to examine factors associated with vaccination and birth outcome. Nearly half of the survey respondents reported not being concerned that in-person prenatal visits might lead to COVID-19 exposure. Most respondents (65.9%) had already received the COVID-19 vaccine at the time of the survey. The vaccination rate was statistically significantly lower among African Americans than the remaining race/ethnicity groups (mostly white). The healthy birth rate is lower among respondents with high-risk pregnancies, while the stillbirth rate is highest among Hispanics. Vaccination status was not associated with the likelihood of a healthy birth. Our findings confirmed that vaccination does not compromise birth outcomes, further contributing to the existing evidence of COVID vaccine safety during pregnancy. This study also demonstrates an example of using data from a pregnancy app to facilitate research on app users in real-time.

Keywords: pregnant people; COVID-19; vaccination; birth outcome; fetal movement tracking app (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I I1 I3 Q Q5 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2023
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