Antenatal Depression is Not Associated with Low-Birth Weight: A Study from Urban Pakistan

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

doi:10.3389/fpsyt.2014.00175

Antenatal Depression is Not Associated with Low-Birth Weight: A Study from Urban Pakistan

Front Psychiatry. 2014 Dec 10:5:175. doi: 10.3389/fpsyt.2014.00175. eCollection 2014.

Authors

Nusrat Husain¹, Tariq Munshi², Farhat Jafri³, Meher Husain⁴, Asia Parveen⁵, Qamar Saeed⁶, Barbara Tomenson⁷, Farooq Naeem², Nasim Chaudhry¹

Affiliations

¹ Institute of Brain, Behavior and Mental Health, University of Manchester , Manchester , UK.
² Department of Psychiatry, Queen's University , Kingston, ON , Canada.
³ Department of Community Medicine, Medical and Dental College , Karachi , Pakistan ; Harvey House Social Enterprises , Lancaster , UK.
⁴ Harvey House Social Enterprises , Lancaster , UK ; Pakistan Institute of Learning and Living , Karachi , Pakistan.
⁵ Pakistan Institute of Learning and Living , Karachi , Pakistan.
⁶ Pakistan Institute of Learning and Living , Karachi , Pakistan ; Chiniot Maternity Home , Karachi , Pakistan.
⁷ Biostatistics Unit, Institute of Population Health, University of Manchester , Manchester , UK.

Abstract

Background: Low-birth weight (LBW) (<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.

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.

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.

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.

Keywords: antenatal depression; depression; developing country; low and middle income countries; low-birth weight; mental health; prenatal depression; prenatal development.