Grant: Travel Awards - Institute Community Support

Respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) infection is the most common cause of hospital admission of children in their first year of life. Premature delivery is associated with higher rates of RSV infection in children but less is known about the association between pre-eclampsia - a condition of high blood pressure and organ failure that occurs during pregnancy - and RSV infection in children. We carried out a study using a large dataset from Quebec to find out whether babies born to mothers with pre-eclampsia are more likely to be hospitalized for RSV infection in their first year of life than babies of mothers without pre-eclampsia. We conducted statistical analyses and adjusted for factors that could affect the results. Our study showed that 5.6% of 621,522 children were born of pregnancies affected by preeclampsia, and nearly 1 in 100 (0.9%) were hospitalized for RSV. Babies born to mothers with preeclampsia had approximately 30% higher risk of being hospitalized for RSV compared with those whose mothers did not have preeclampsia. The risk was even higher for babies whose mothers had severe or early-onset pre-eclampsia. Preeclampsia that led to preterm birth or serious newborn health problems was also linked to a greater risk of RSV hospitalization.