# 6/7: Longitudinal evaluation of the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on high-risk new and expectant mothers

> **NIH NIH R34** · UNIVERSITY OF VERMONT & ST AGRIC COLLEGE · 2020 · $152,961

## Abstract

Project Summary
The COVID-19 pandemic represents the most significant environmental event in living history and is leading to
unprecedented social, economic and health consequences. There is an urgent need to longitudinally study the
impact of the pandemic on pregnant women and the care they receive, and to understand the consequences for
their children’s birth outcomes and neurobehavioral development. Importantly, women with pre-existing
substance use, mental health conditions and limited economic resources may be at increased risk for the wide-
ranging, deleterious sequelae of the pandemic. The proposed project seeks to address these critical gaps by
building upon ongoing harmonized research efforts across seven geographically-representative sites from the
NIH HEALthy Brains and Cognitive Development study (HBCD) initiative, including New York University, Oregon
Health Sciences University, Washington University in St. Louis, University of Pittsburgh, Cedars Sinai Medical
Center, University of Vermont and Northwestern University. We will enroll pregnant and postpartum women into
a multi-wave study in which we assess medical, economic, psychosocial and substance use risk across
pregnancy and the perinatal period, studying associations of these factors to infant neurobehavioral development
during the first year of life. Our central hypotheses include: 1) individual variation in perinatal COVID-19 related
stress leads to differences in birth outcomes, parenting stress and infant temperament and neurodevelopment
and 2) substance use, mental health and economic risk enhance susceptibility to negative COVID-19 related
health and psychosocial outcomes. To pursue these aims, prospective longitudinal survey, birth and postpartum
data will be obtained across a 3-month period in N=100 pregnant and new mothers per site (providing a total
consortium sample of N=700) to generate individual temporal profiles of COVID-19 related experiences and
responses, comparing outcomes with existing data from maternal-infant cohorts obtained prior to the pandemic.
Further, to identify avenues for intervention, will evaluate substance use, poor mental health and low
socioeconomic status as risk factors and coping, agency and utilization of resources as resilience factors that
influence COVID-19 related maternal stress and child health and neurobehavioral outcomes. The effects of
geographic location will be used to examine the influence of pandemic severity, variation in local government
policies and resource availability on these outcomes. Finally, we will collect and bank longitudinal perinatal
biospecimens in N=40 women per site that will provide a foundation for future studies to evaluate the biological
mechanisms through which the effects on maternal psychological and physical health influence offspring brain
and behavioral development. Through this analysis of COVID-19 related stress, contextual factors and child
outcomes, we will develop a comprehensive understanding ...

## Key facts

- **NIH application ID:** 10149450
- **Project number:** 3R34DA050283-01S2
- **Recipient organization:** UNIVERSITY OF VERMONT & ST AGRIC COLLEGE
- **Principal Investigator:** Leigh-Anne Cioffredi
- **Activity code:** R34 (R01, R21, SBIR, etc.)
- **Funding institute:** NIH
- **Fiscal year:** 2020
- **Award amount:** $152,961
- **Award type:** 3
- **Project period:** 2019-09-30 → 2021-03-31

## Primary source

NIH RePORTER: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/10149450

## Citation

> US National Institutes of Health, RePORTER application 10149450, 6/7: Longitudinal evaluation of the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on high-risk new and expectant mothers (3R34DA050283-01S2). Retrieved via AI Analytics 2026-05-23 from https://api.ai-analytics.org/grant/nih/10149450. Licensed CC0.

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