Publication: Lyme borreliosis in pregnancy and associations with parent and offspring health outcomes: An international cross-sectional survey
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Authors: Katherine Leavey, Rachel K. MacKenzie, Sue Faber, Vett K. Lloyd, Charlotte Mao, Melanie K. B. Wills, Isabelle Boucoiran, Elizabeth C. Cates, Abeer Omar, Olivia Marquez and Elizabeth K. Darling.
Who: This study grew out of the work of RN and President of LymeHope, Sue Faber, and was conducted by a dynamic team from the Midwifery Program, Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology at McMaster University under the leadership of Dr. Elizabeth Darling. International experts in pediatrics, infectious disease, and Lyme contributed to the study design and interpretation of findings.
What: Does Lyme ‘run’ in families? Are children born to parents with Lyme disease more likely to have health issues themselves? In recent years there has been a groundswell of community activism around this topic based on the lived experiences of many families. However, research studies have largely failed to address the phenomena that people were reporting. This study is a first step to formalize an analysis of intergenerational health outcomes, asking whether Lyme status in pregnancy is associated with complications, neonate health, and developmental trajectory of the child.
How: 691 participants who had experienced one or more pregnancies completed a comprehensive online survey that asked about parental and offspring medical history and health status. The research team then categorized participants and their pregnancies by Lyme status. This involved using the information provided by participants to determine whether parental Lyme was suspected or diagnosed, treated or untreated, and when the illness occurred relative to the timing of births. The data analysts then compared different categories to look for trends.
Overall, participants whose disease started before or during pregnancy were more likely than those unaffected by Lyme to experience a range of complications. Neonates from treated parents fared better in some health outcomes than than those from untreated Lyme cases. However, as children aged, more symptoms appeared. Children aged 6 – 15 from Lyme-affected pregnancies experienced musculoskeletal, gastrointestinal / urinary, sleep, concentration / fatigue, sensory, and vision issues, as well as rashes and unexplained fevers regardless of whether the parental Lyme case was treated. Rates of these symptoms were much lower after non-Lyme pregnancies.
What’s next: This study expands our understanding of population-level trends in the lived experiences of those with Lyme, and their children. Participants with Lyme disease before or during pregnancy reported a higher burden of many symptoms in their children. Does this mean they passed Borrelia to the fetus in utero? This survey-based study was not designed to answer that question, but the findings argue that well-developed prospective studies should be run to look at Lyme in pregnancy, birth, and child outcomes.