American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists, May 17-19

The annual meeting of the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists was held from May 17 to 19 in San Francisco and was attended by more than 4,000 clinicians, academicians, allied health professionals, and others interested in obstetrics and gynecology. The conference highlighted recent advances in the prevention, detection, and treatment of conditions impacting women, with presentations focusing on the advancement of health care services for women worldwide.

In one study, Madelaine E. McElrath, of New York Medical College and Westchester Medical Center in Valhalla, and colleagues identified a discrepancy in tone and content between how patients and how medical professionals discuss Pap smears on TikTok.

The authors collected and analyzed 100 videos tagged with #PapSmear on TikTok using a data-scraping program. They found that medical professionals created most of the positive videos (68.0 percent), while the majority of the creators of the negative videos were not medical professionals (91.4 percent). Most of the negative videos (60.0 percent) recounted personal patient experiences, and common themes found in the patient videos were fear, embarrassment, and pain. In addition, videos on TikTok presenting educational material regarding #PapSmear scored highly on understandability but low on health information quality.

“Providers should consider that patients may approach health care discussions and decisions with preconceived negative influence from TikTok,” McElrath said. “Health care providers may consider becoming more active on TikTok to contribute educational content and show relatability to patients.”

Abstract No. 2683630

In another study, Chris Soudah, of the University of Texas Medical Branch at Galveston, and colleagues found that patients who contract COVID-19 between three and 12 months prior to pregnancy have an increased relative risk for preeclampsia, fetal growth restriction, and antepartum hemorrhage compared with women who are not infected with COVID-19.

The authors aimed to investigate the risk for adverse pregnancy outcomes associated with COVID-19 infection acquired at least three months prior to pregnancy. The adverse pregnancy outcomes evaluated included fetal growth restriction, preeclampsia, antepartum hemorrhage, death, gestational diabetes, and preterm labor.

The authors created two cohorts using deidentified patient data from TriNetX. One cohort included patients of child-bearing age (15 to 45 years) with a history of COVID-19 infection three to 12 months prior to pregnancy. The second cohort included patients of child-bearing age without a history of COVID-19 infection three to 12 months prior to pregnancy. The cohorts were propensity score-matched for age, sex, race, and ethnicity.