Asthma severity and impact on perinatal outcomes: an updated systematic review and meta-analysis.

BACKGROUND: Large-scale studies exploring the associations of asthma severity, exacerbations and medication use with adverse perinatal outcomes have been published in recent years.

OBJECTIVES: To update evidence on the associations of asthma severity, exacerbations and medication use with the adverse perinatal outcomes of preterm delivery (PD), low birthweight (LBW) and small-for-gestational-age (SGA).

SEARCH STRATEGY: PubMed, Embase, Wanfang, and China National Knowledge Infrastructure (CNKI) from inception to 1 January 2021.

SELECTION CRITERIA: Cohort studies comparing the likelihood of adverse perinatal outcomes in groups of asthmatic women stratified by asthma severity, asthma exacerbations or medication use, or comparing the likelihood of adverse perinatal outcomes between non-asthmatic women and asthmatics of various levels of severity and exacerbation.

DATA COLLECTION AND ANALYSIS: Two authors independently extracted data and assessed risk of bias. Random-effects models were used to meta-analyse the results.

MAIN RESULTS: Twenty studies met the inclusion criteria. The odds of delivering SGA babies increased with maternal asthma severity. Pregnant women with an asthma exacerbation had higher odds of delivering LBW babies and SGA babies, compared with pregnant women with asthma but without an exacerbation (pooled adjusted odds ratio [OR] 1.15, 95% CI 1.02-1.29 for LBW; number of studies with adjusted OR 3; I2  = 0%) (pooled adjusted OR 1.13, 95% CI 1.04-1.23 for SGA; number of studies with adjusted OR 4; I2  = 0%) and compared to pregnant women without asthma. Oral corticosteroids use during pregnancy was associated with increased odds of LBW, but not PD.

CONCLUSIONS: The available data suggest that maternal asthma severity and exacerbations are associated with increased odds of LBW and SGA babies.

TWEETABLE ABSTRACT: A systematic review and meta-analysis found that maternal asthma severity and exacerbations are associated with increased odds of delivering low birthweight and small-for-gestational-age babies.