Antenatal depression is not associated with low-birth weight: a study from urban Pakistan

作者：Husain Nusrat; Munshi Tariq^*; Jafri Farhat; Husain Meher; Parveen Asia; Saeed Qamar; Tomenson Barbara; Naeem Farooq; Chaudhry Nasim

来源：Frontiers in Psychiatry, 2014, 5: 175.

DOI：10.3389/fpsyt.2014.00175

• low-birth weight
• mental health
• depression
• prenatal development
• developing country
• antenatal depression
• prenatal depression
• low and middle income countries

Background: Low-birth weight (LBW) (%26lt;2500 g) is considered to be a leading cause of cognitive impairment and physical disabilities in children. Incidence of LBW in South Asia has been reported to be as high as 33%. We investigated the association between antenatal depression and LBW in an urban community, in Karachi, Pakistan. %26lt;br%26gt;Methods: A total of 1357 pregnant women in their third trimester were recruited into the study. They were screened for antenatal depression with Edinburgh postnatal depression scale. Self-reporting questionnaire was also used to measure psychological distress. Birth weights of 763 newborns were obtained from the hospital records. %26lt;br%26gt;Results: We did not find a significant association between antenatal depression and LBW (odds ratio 0.881, 95%CI 0.732-1.060) in mothers attending a charity run hospital in an urban setting in Pakistan. %26lt;br%26gt;Conclusion: Antenatal depression is not associated with LBW in this urban population in Pakistan. However, the prevalence of depression is high during pregnancy. There is a need to develop culturally adapted psychosocial interventions to address the high rates of depression for this population group.

• 出版日期2014-12-10