Association of Antepartum and Postpartum Depression in Ghanaian and Ivorian Women With Febrile Illness in Their Offspring: A Prospective Birth Cohort Study

Abstract

In low-income countries, perinatal depression is common, but longitudinal data on its influence on child health are rare. We examined the association between maternal depression and febrile illness in children. There were 654 mother/child dyads in Ghana and Côte d'Ivoire that were enrolled in a prospective birth cohort in 2010-2011 and underwent 2-years of follow up. Mothers were examined for depression using the Patient Health Questionnaire depression module antepartum and 3 and 12 months postpartum. The hazard of febrile illness in children of depressed and nondepressed mothers was estimated using a recurrent event Cox proportional hazards model. The prevalences of antepartum depression in mothers from Côte d'Ivoire and Ghana were 28.3% and 26.3%, respectively. The prevalences of depression at 3 and 12 months postpartum were 11.8% and 16.1% (Côte d'Ivoire) and 8.9% and 7.2% (Ghana). The crude and adjusted (for country and socioeconomic status) hazard ratios of febrile illness in children of depressed mothers compared with those in children of nondepressed mothers were 1.57 (95% confidence interval: 1.20, 2.07) and 1.32 (95% confidence interval: 1.01, 1.74) respectively. Perinatal depression was frequent and associated with febrile illness in the offspring. Our results showed that a high prevalence of depression in sub-Saharan Africa may pose a serious public health threat to women and their offspring.

Maternal depression does not affect complementary feeding indicators or stunting status of young children (6–23 months) in Northern Ghana

“…A higher prevalence of maternal depression was estimated (33.5%) than previously reported for a population of mothers in Ghana (3.8–27.8%) [11, 13, 32–36]. Among these studies the highest rate (27.8%) was reported for mothers in Northern Ghana [11] while lower rates were reported for southern Ghana (3.8–11.3%).…”

Mental health related determinants of parenting stress among urban mothers of young children – results from a birth-cohort study in Ghana and Côte d’Ivoire

“…This study is part of a larger research project, the Child Development Study (CDS) [32,34,38], which established and followed a birth cohort of women and their children in Ghana and Côte d’Ivoire to investigate the impact of ante- and postpartum exposure to maternal common mental disorders on child health and development. In brief, women in their last trimester of pregnancy were consecutively recruited in two large hospitals, the Komfo Anokye Teaching Hospital in Kumasi (Ghana), and the Abobo Community Hospital in Abidjan (Côte d’Ivoire) during antepartum care visits between March 2010 and December 2011.…”

“…This variable was chosen because febrile illness is the most common reason for sick child visits and infectious diseases are by far the most important drivers of morbidity and mortality in young children in low-income countries. The cumulative number of sick child visit by 3 month, 12 month and 24 month postpartum was recorded [32]. …”

“…the degree of affective reactivity at 4 and 5 months [28,29], infant crying and fussing up to six months after delivery [30], and other determinants of child behavior difficulties, contributing to the subjective parenting experience [31]. Maternal depression has recently been associated with an increased hazard of severe febrile illness in the offspring [32], which may contribute to or modify PS. While several studies have shown associations between postpartum depression and dysfunctional parenting, little work has been done to explore the relationship between antepartum mental health problems and postpartum PS [33].…”

Magnitude and risk factors for postpartum symptoms: A literature review

“…Immigrants have high postpartum depression prevalence of 0.5-65.0% in Western and nonWestern countries (Pearlstein et al, 2009;Le et al, 2010;Chien et al, 2012;Hung et al, 2012;Lucero et al, 2012). Postpartum depression was reported to be 7-70% in mothers of ill newborn (de Alencar et al, 2009;Lefkowitz et al, 2010;Gold et al, 2013;Guo et al, 2013), 13% in mothers of preterm infants (Korja et al, 2008) and 23.5% in mothers of infantile colic infants (Akman et al, 2006). Among military women, 13% and 11% of mothers have positive screening for postpartum depression at two weeks and six weeks, respectively (Rychnovsky and Beck, 2006).…”