UMass Chan Medical School Faculty Publications
UMMS Affiliation
New England Newborn Screening Program; Program in Molecular Medicine; UMass Center for Clinical and Translational Science; Department of Pediatrics, Division of Pediatric Genetics
Publication Date
2021-10-30
Document Type
Article Preprint
Disciplines
Epidemiology | Genetics and Genomics | Immunology and Infectious Disease | Infectious Disease | Maternal and Child Health | Pediatrics | Public Health
Abstract
Background Estimating the cumulative incidence of SARS-CoV-2 is essential for setting public health policies. We leveraged de-identified Massachusetts newborn screening specimens to generate an accessible, retrospective source of maternal antibodies for estimating statewide SARS-CoV-2 seroprevalence in a non-test-seeking population.
Methods We analyzed 72,117 newborn dried blood spots collected from November 2019 through December 2020, representing 337 towns and cities across Massachusetts. Seroprevalence was estimated for the general Massachusetts population after correcting for imperfect test specificity and nonrepresentative sampling using Bayesian multilevel regression and poststratification.
Results Statewide seroprevalence was estimated to be 0.03% (90% credible interval (CI) [0.00, 0.11]) in November 2019 and rose to 1.47% (90% CI [1.00, 2.13]) by May 2020, following sustained SARS-CoV-2 transmission in the spring. Seroprevalence plateaued from May onwards, reaching 2.15% (90% CI [1.56, 2.98]) in December 2020. Seroprevalence varied substantially by community and was particularly associated with community percent non-Hispanic Black (β = 0.024, 90% CI [0.004, 0.044]); i.e., a 10% increase in community percent non-Hispanic Black was associated with a 27% higher odds of seropositivity. Seroprevalence estimates had good concordance with reported case counts and wastewater surveillance for most of 2020, prior to the resurgence of transmission in winter.
Conclusions Cumulative incidence of SARS-CoV-2 protective antibody in Massachusetts was low as of December 2020, indicating that a substantial fraction of the population was still susceptible. Maternal seroprevalence data from newborn screening can inform longitudinal trends and identify cities and towns at highest risk, particularly in settings where widespread diagnostic testing is unavailable.
Summary The measurement of maternal antibodies in dried blood spots collected for newborn screening offers a statewide source of SARS-CoV-2 seroprevalence data independent of case testing limitations. We analyzed 72,117 Massachusetts spots collected November 2019 – December 2020 and estimated longitudinal trends.
Keywords
Epidemiology, SARS-CoV-2, maternal antibodies, seroprevalence, UMCCTS funding
Rights and Permissions
The copyright holder for this preprint is the author/funder, who has granted bioRxiv a license to display the preprint in perpetuity. It is made available under a CC-BY-NC-ND 4.0 International license.
DOI of Published Version
10.1101/2021.10.29.21265678
Source
medRxiv 2021.10.29.21265678; doi: https://doi.org/10.1101/2021.10.29.21265678. Link to preprint on medRxiv.
Journal/Book/Conference Title
medRxiv
Repository Citation
Ma KC, Hale JE, Grad YH, Alter G, Luzuriaga K, Eaton RB, Fischinger S, Kaur D, Brody RM, Siddiqui SM, Leach D, Brown CM, Klevens RM, Madoff L, Comeau A. (2021). Trends in SARS-CoV-2 seroprevalence in Massachusetts estimated from newborn screening specimens [preprint]. UMass Chan Medical School Faculty Publications. https://doi.org/10.1101/2021.10.29.21265678. Retrieved from https://escholarship.umassmed.edu/faculty_pubs/2208
Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 4.0 License.
Included in
Epidemiology Commons, Genetics and Genomics Commons, Immunology and Infectious Disease Commons, Infectious Disease Commons, Maternal and Child Health Commons, Pediatrics Commons
Comments
This article is a preprint. Preprints are preliminary reports of work that have not been certified by peer review.