Long-term health and neurodevelopment in children after antenatal exposure to low-dose aspirin for the prevention of preeclampsia and fetal growth restriction: A systematic review of randomized controlled trials.

OBJECTIVE

To evaluate the long-term effects of antenatal aspirin exposure on child health and neurodevelopmental outcome beyond the perinatal period.

STUDY DESIGN

PubMed, Embase.com, the Cochrane Library and Web of Science were systematically searched from inception through 5 November 2020. We performed a cited-reference search and ClinicalTrials.gov was searched on 20 October 2020 to identify trial results that were not reported elsewhere. We included randomized controlled trials reporting on health-related outcomes in children (aged > 28 days) exposed to aspirin versus placebo or no treatment during pregnancy. Studies with any dose or duration of aspirin use were included. We excluded studies evaluating other antiplatelet agents or non-steroidal inflammatory drugs. Two authors independently performed study selection, data extraction and quality assessment. Quality assessment was performed using the Cochrane RoB2 tool for the original randomized controlled trials and the QUIPS for the follow-up studies. Results are presented as relative risks (RR) with 95% confidence intervals (95%CI).

RESULTS

The search yielded 6,907 unique records. Two studies were included, containing 4,168 children at age 12 months and 5,153 children at 18 months. Children were exposed to aspirin 50-60 mg versus placebo or no treatment. At 12 months, post-neonatal mortality was lower after allocation to aspirin (0.2% versus 0.5%; RR 0.28, 95%CI 0.08-0.99) in a single study. At 18 months, fewer children were found to have (gross and fine) motor problems (RR 0.49, 95%CI 0.26-0.91) after antenatal aspirin exposure in one study. No differences were found in mortality rate; the proportion of children with a short stature or low weight; or respiratory, hearing or visual problems at 18 months. Both included studies had a high risk of bias.

CONCLUSION

The two included studies showed evidence of potential benefit of antenatal low-dose aspirin on mortality and neurodevelopment up to the age of 18 months. Our findings support the current application of low-dose aspirin in pregnant women at risk for preeclampsia and fetal growth restriction. However, further follow-up research of children who were exposed to low-dose aspirin during pregnancy is of utmost importance to exclude potential long-term harm.