A recent study has shed light on the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the gut microbiomes of infants, revealing that those born during the pandemic exhibit a lower diversity of gut bacteria compared to infants born before the outbreak. These findings, published in Scientific Reports, suggest that the altered social dynamics and environmental changes brought about by the pandemic may have played a role in shaping the gut microbiota of these infants.
The study, led by Sarah C. Vogel, a recent doctoral graduate from New York University’s Steinhardt School’s developmental psychology program, highlights the concept of alpha diversity within the gut microbiome. Alpha diversity refers to the number of distinct bacterial species present in the gut. According to the research, infants whose gut microbes were sampled during the pandemic demonstrated a lower alpha diversity, indicating a reduced variety of bacterial species in their gastrointestinal systems.
Furthermore, the study found that these infants exhibited a decreased abundance of two specific bacterial families, Pasteurellaceae and Haemophilus, which are known to reside in the human body and have the potential to cause various infections. Additionally, the research identified significant differences in beta diversity, a measure of the dissimilarity or similarity between the gut microbiomes of two groups.
The researchers suggest that these variations in gut microbiota could be attributed to the changes in the social environment caused by the COVID-19 pandemic. Factors such as increased time spent at home, reduced interactions with other children in daycare settings, heightened hygiene measures, alterations in diet and breastfeeding practices, and elevated caregiver stress levels may have collectively influenced the gut microbiome composition of these infants.
Vogel commented on the study’s significance, stating, “The COVID-19 pandemic provides a rare natural experiment to help us better understand how the social environment shapes the infant gut microbiome, and this study contributes to a growing field of research about how changes to an infant’s social environment might be associated with changes to the gut microbiome.”
To conduct this research, the team compared stool samples from two distinct groups of 12-month-old infants living in New York City: one group sampled before the pandemic (comprising 34 infants) and the other between March and December of 2020 (consisting of 20 infants).
While cautioning against drawing immediate health implications from these findings, the authors emphasized the well-established link between gut microbiome diversity and overall health throughout one’s lifespan. Senior author Natalie Brito, an associate professor at NYU Steinhardt, explained, “In adults, we know that lower diversity of the microbiota species in the gut has been linked to poorer physical and mental health. But more research is needed on the development of the gut microbiome during infancy and how the early caregiving environment can shape those connections.”
