Antenatal depressive symptoms among pregnant women: Evidence from a Southern Brazilian population-based cohort study

Abstract

BackgroundAntenatal depression (AD) is a major public health issue but evidence regarding its prevalence and associated factors in low and middle-income countries (LMICs) is limited. The aim of the study was to estimate the prevalence and identify risk factors for AD among Brazilian pregnant women.MethodsAll women living in the urban area of the city of Pelotas, Southern Brazil, with confirmed pregnancy and estimated delivery date in the year 2015, were invited to take part. Eligible pregnant women were recruited from health services. Symptoms of antenatal depression were assessed using the Edinburgh Postnatal Depression Scale (EPDS) by face-to-face interviews. A cutoff-point of 13 or more was used to define probable AD.ResultsEPDS scores were available for 4130 women. The prevalence of AD was 16% (95%CI 14·9–17·1). After adjustment for potential confounders, the factors most strongly associated with higher EPDS scores were a previous history of depression (PR 2·81; 95%CI 2·44-3·25), high parity (PR 1·72; 95%CI 1·38-2·15 - ≥2 children vs. 1 child) and maternal education (PR 5·47; 95%CI 4·22-7·09 - 0–4 vs. ≥12 years of formal education).LimitationsEPDS was administered through face-to-face interviews rather than questionnaires and some women may have felt uncomfortable reporting their symptoms leading to underreporting and consequently underestimation of the prevalence found.ConclusionAD prevalence is substantially higher in Brazil than in high-income countries (HICs) but similar to other LMICs. Our study identified relevant risk factors that may be potential targets to plan interventions, particularly a history of depression.

Magnitude of Antenatal Depression and Associated Factors among Pregnant Women in West Badewacho Woreda, Hadiyya Zone, South Ethiopia: Community Based Cross Sectional Study

“…e current study also identified that the odds of antenatal depression was about 4 times higher among pregnant women who had family history of mental illness as compared to women who reported no family history of mental illness. is is in line with studies conducted in Ethiopia on perinatal women [36,37] but contradicting with study finding in Pakistan [38]. e variation might be due to the differences of methodology (inclusion criteria) and analysis method which is only square.…”

Prenatal distress level and its predictors according to the gestational age in pregnant women in the semi-urban region in Northwestern Turkey: A cross-sectional study

“…It was demonstrated that younger pregnant women were 36% more likely to suffer depression than older pregnant women in Brazil [22]. In a study conducted in the USA, anxiety levels were found to be higher in younger pregnant women [29].…”

“…While the Mann Whitney-U test was used to compare the means in two independent groups, the Kruskal Wallis test was used to compare the means in three and more independent groups. In literature, associated with prenatal distress level [7,8,19,22,25] and in the univariate analysis, variables with p < 0.20 were included in the model Multivariate Linear Regression Analysis was performed. The explanatory value of the models was evaluated with the Adjusted R-square (Adj.…”

“…In the literature, the frequency of prenatal distress was 55.6% in Indonesia and 11.9% in women whose gestational age was ≥ 12th weeks in Turkey, and ranged between 37.5% and 54.1% in women whose gestational ages were between 16 and 36 weeks respectively in Iceland [2,13,14]. In some studies, the freqency of stress, anxiety, depression during pregnancy ranged between 7.9% and 33.8% [8,21,22,[26][27][28]. In addition, in our study, similar to literature [17,21,[29][30][31][32], the levels of prenatal distress were higher in the participants whose gestational age was between 28th -41st weeks than that in the participants whose gestational age was between 12th -27th weeks.…”

“…Distress in pregnancy whose effects sustain in the postpartum period affects not only the pregnant woman but also her family adversely and remains to be a signi cant public health problem [22]. The Turkish Statistical Institute reported that the total fertility rate of Kirklareli was lower than the average rate of the entire Turkey in 2017 [23].…”