Abstract
Purpose :
Retinopathy of prematurity (ROP) is the leading cause of blindness associated with pre-term births. Globally, numerous centres have reported a reduction in pre-term hospital births during the SARS-CoV-2 virus (COVID-19) lockdown restrictions. Lockdown measures may have influenced the health and wellbeing of pregnant women.
A survey of ROP screening ophthalmologists in London indicated a perceived reduction in the number of babies screened during lockdown measures in 2020 compared to previous years.
The aim of this study was to determine whether there has been a change in the severity or prevalence of ROP due to COVID-19 lockdown restrictions in the UK.
Methods :
A pilot study of 113 participants screened for ROP in an East London Hospital were included. Babies whose last 4 weeks of gestation fell within the UK’s first lockdown window of 23rd of March and 28th of August 2020 were compared to data from corresponding dates in 2019.
A student t -test was used to compare the gestational ages, birth-weight, ethnicity, and severity of ROP stage, COVID-19 status and multiple pregnancies.
A chi-squared test was used to compare the prevalence of various stages of ROP between the two groups and a t-test was used to compare the demographics.
Results :
This study showed no statistical significance (p=0.09) in the prevalence of babies with various stages of ROP between 2019 (n=68) and 2020 (n=45).
Overall, this pilot study showed no statistical significance (p=>0.05) in birth-weight, gestational age or ethnicities between the two groups.
Conclusions :
In conclusion, our pilot study showed no statistical significance in the prevalence of babies with ROP between 2019 and 2020. Although subjectively we have noted there to be a trend in fewer babies born below 32 weeks or 1500g birthweight during lockdown corresponding to fewer ROP screenings at our London hospital, we were unable to demonstrate a statistically significant difference due to our small sample size.
We aim to increase the power of the study by including data from other screening units in London and collecting further control data from 2018.
We believe that our study has the potential to indicate how the UK’s lockdown measures may impact the prevalence and severity of babies with ROP associated with preterm births.
This is a 2021 ARVO Annual Meeting abstract.