Loneliness and Depressive Symptoms among Pregnant Black Women during the COVID-19 Pandemic

Giurgescu, Carmen; Wong, Ana C; Rengers, Brooke; Vaughan, Sarah; Nowak, Alexandra; Price, Mercedes; Dailey, Rhonda; Anderson, Cindy M.; Walker, Deborah S.; Misra, Dawn P.

doi:10.1177/01939459211043937

Cited by 14 publications

(17 citation statements)

References 29 publications

(52 reference statements)

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“…A total of 45 references were selected for a total of 59,329 pregnant women (Table 2). Table 2 shows the summary of the references and associated factors [5]- [49].…”

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Review of Factors Associated with Depression among Pregnant Women during the COVID-19 Pandemic

Manaka¹,

Sasano²,

Chikazawa³

et al. 2023

Health

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Purpose: This purpose of the study was to investigate the factors both risk and protective associated with depression among pregnant women during the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic. Methods: A literature search was conducted on July 2022, through PubMed, CINAHL, MEDLINE, CiNii, and the Japan Medical Abstract Society databases, with the keywords "COVID-19", "pregnant women", and "depression". The titles/abstracts were screened based on three selection criteria: 1) inclusion of pregnant women; 2) description of depression; and 3) description of the factors associated with depression among pregnant women during the COVID-19 pandemic. Results: Of the 213 articles extracted, 104 were excluded owing to duplication, and 14 were excluded because they comprised other article types, including reviews and commentaries. Finally, 40 were excluded by title, abstract, and full-text screening. Among the 45 articles for a total of 59,329 pregnant women that met the inclusion criteria, the risk factors were "distress from COVID-19-related experiences", "reduced/low income", "unemployment", "anxiety", "history of mental illness", "lack of social support", and "reduced/no exercise". The protective factors "greater/increased social support", "higher education level", "higher resilience", and "healthy lifestyle behaviors" were much less frequently reported than risk factors, and none were reported to be relevant for Japanese pregnant women. Conclusion: The findings indicate that preventive interventions should begin during pregnancy with a focus on these risk factors. In addition, the protective factors need to be strengthened. Further research is required to identify the protective factors associated with depression among Japanese pregnant women.

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“…A total of 45 references were selected for a total of 59,329 pregnant women (Table 2). Table 2 shows the summary of the references and associated factors [5]- [49].…”

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Review of Factors Associated with Depression among Pregnant Women during the COVID-19 Pandemic

Manaka¹,

Sasano²,

Chikazawa³

et al. 2023

Health

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“…Maternal loneliness during pregnancy and the postpartum period is associated with several health issues for the mother and her child. Various studies showed a positive correlation between loneliness and depression during pregnancy across countries [5][6][7][8][9][10]. In addition, maternal loneliness is associated with life dissatisfaction and pair-relationship dissatisfaction [9].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…For example, Perzow et al in [5] used self-report questionnaires to discern symptoms of depression and anxiety, loneliness, and COVID-19-related adverse health outcomes. In another study, Giurgescu et al [6] used online surveys to investigate the association between loneliness, depression, perceived stress, and social support during the COVID-19 pandemic in pregnant Black women.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Other studies showed that loneliness is significantly associated with postpartum depression [11, 12]. It was also shown that, in the COVID-19 pandemic, loneliness during pregnancy was associated with serious psychological distress [13], anxiety [14], cognitive distortion [10], higher level of perceived stress [6], and lower level of social support [6, 7]. Maternal loneliness increases the risk of respiratory tract infections in newborn babies [15].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…In another study, Giurgescu et al . [6] used online surveys to investigate the association between loneliness, depression, perceived stress, and social support during the COVID-19 pandemic in pregnant Black women. In [10], standard questionnaires were utilized to study the relationship among loneliness, depression, and cognitive distortion.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Predicting maternal social loneliness by passive sensing with wearable devices

Sarhaddi

Azimi

Niela‐Vilén

et al. 2022

Preprint

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Background Maternal loneliness is associated with adverse physical and mental health outcomes for both the mother and her child. Detecting maternal loneliness non-invasively through wearable devices and passive sensing provides opportunities to prevent or reduce the impact of loneliness on the health and well-being of the mother and her child. Objective The aim of this study is to use objective health data collected passively by a wearable device to predict maternal (social) loneliness during pregnancy and the postpartum period based on and to identify the important objective physiological parameters in loneliness detection. Methods We conducted a longitudinal study using smartwatches to continuously collect physiological data from 31 women during pregnancy and the postpartum period. The participants completed the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) loneliness questionnaire in gestational week 36 and again at 12 weeks postpartum. Responses to this questionnaire and the background information of the participants were collected via our customized cross-platform mobile application. We leveraged participants’ smartwatch data from the 7 days before and the day of their completion of the UCLA questionnaire for loneliness prediction. We categorized the loneliness scores from the UCLA questionnaire as loneliness (scores >= 12) and non-loneliness (scores < 12). We developed decision tree and gradient boosting models to predict loneliness. We evaluated the models by using a leave-one-participant-out cross validation. Moreover, we discussed the importance of extracted health parameters in our models for loneliness prediction. Results The gradient boosting and decision tree models predicted maternal social loneliness with weighted F1 scores of 0.871 and 0.897, respectively. Our results also show that loneliness is highly associated with activity intensity, activity distribution during the day, resting heart rate (HR), and resting heart rate variability (HRV). Conclusion Our results show the potential benefit and feasibility of using passive sensing with a smartwatch to predict maternal loneliness. Our developed machine learning models achieved a high F1 score for loneliness prediction. We also show that intensity of activity, activity pattern, and resting HR and HRV are good predictors of loneliness. These results indicate the intervention opportunities made available by wearable devices and predictive models to improve maternal well-being by early detection of loneliness.

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COVID‐19 Posttraumatic Effects on Perinatal Psychological Distress: A Cross‐Sectional Study at the End of the Pandemic Health Emergency

Caffieri,

Fabbricatore,

Margherita

2024

Clin Psychology and Psychoth

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IntroductionPsychological distress in pregnant and postpartum women increased during the COVID‐19 pandemic. However, the impact of the pandemic in perinatal women at the end of the health emergency has been rarely studied. This study is aimed at investigating the psychological health of pregnant and postpartum women at the end of the COVID‐19 public health emergency, hypothesizing that the COVID‐19‐related fears influence perinatal psychological distress via the mediation of the COVID‐19‐related posttraumatic impact and loneliness.MethodsA total of 200 women in the perinatal period, of which 125 were pregnant and 75 were postpartum, participated in an online survey at the end of the COVID‐19 public health emergency in Italy. Depression, anxiety, stress, loneliness, posttraumatic impact of COVID‐19 pandemic and COVID‐19‐related fears were assessed. To test the hypotheses, robust serial mediation analyses were performed.ResultsIncreased levels of COVID‐19‐related fears were associated with an increase in perinatal depression, anxiety and stress indirectly through the serial mediation of COVID‐19 posttraumatic impact and loneliness. Loneliness played a stronger role in mediating the relationship between COVID‐19‐related fears and depression than anxiety and stress outcomes.ConclusionsThis study should be considered exploratory for its methodological characteristics and nonreplicability of the pandemic condition. However, this study suggests the importance of assessing posttraumatic reactions to ‘collective’ crises in pregnant and postpartum women for research and clinical practice. In addition, it sustains the role of loneliness as a transversal construct that should be greatly considered in targeting psychological interventions for women in the perinatal period.

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Loneliness and Depressive Symptoms among Pregnant Black Women during the COVID-19 Pandemic

Cited by 14 publications

References 29 publications

Review of Factors Associated with Depression among Pregnant Women during the COVID-19 Pandemic

Review of Factors Associated with Depression among Pregnant Women during the COVID-19 Pandemic

Predicting maternal social loneliness by passive sensing with wearable devices

COVID‐19 Posttraumatic Effects on Perinatal Psychological Distress: A Cross‐Sectional Study at the End of the Pandemic Health Emergency

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