Measuring the Outcomes of Maternal COVID-19-related Prenatal Exposure (MOM-COPE): study protocol for a multicentric longitudinal project.

ABSTRACT:

Introduction

COVID-19 is a highly infectious respiratory disease that rapidly emerged as an unprecedented epidemic in Europe, with a primary hotspot in Northern Italy during the first months of 2020. Its high infection rate and rapid spread contribute to set the risk for relevant psychological stress in citizens. In this context, mother-infant health is at risk not only because of potential direct exposure to the virus but also due to high levels of stress experienced by mothers from conception to delivery. Prenatal stress exposure associates with less-than-optimal child developmental outcomes, and specific epigenetic mechanisms (eg, DNA methylation) may play a critical role in mediating this programming association.

Methods and analysis

We present the methodological protoco

SUBMITTER: Provenzi L 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC7780424 | biostudies-literature | 2020 Dec

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature