Short Communication: The Impact of Depression During Pregnancy on Newborn Health in Developing Countries

摘要

Most studies of depression in relation to motherhood have focused on post-natal depression. However, depression during pregnancy itself is of public health importance for three reasons. First, the burden of depression during pregnancy is high. A recent systematic review of cohort studies of depression associated with motherhood identified 19 eligible articles . On pooling the raw data, the prevalence of antenatal depression was 14% (95%CI 13.5,14.5). The pooled prevalence of postnatal depression was 10.5% (95%CI 10.1,10.9). Of these 19 studies, 15 were from high income countries and four were from low and middle income countries. The pooled prevalence of antenatal and postnatal depression were 28.4% (95%CI 25.9, 30.8) and 23.1% (95%CI 20.9, 25.4) respectively, for lower income countries, compared to 13% (95%CI 10.5,13.5) and 9.6% (95%CI 9.1,10.0) for high income countries. Thus, the prevalence of depression associated with motherhood was highest during the third trimester and prevalence rates were significantly higher in low income countries.