Abstract
BackgroundEpidemiological evidence for the association of socioeconomic status with prenatal depression has been inconsistent. The current cross-sectional study examined the association between employment, job type, household income, and educational level and the prevalence of depressive symptoms during pregnancy.MethodsSubjects were 1741 Japanese women. Depressive symptoms were defined as present when subjects had a Center for Epidemiologic Studies Depression Scale score of 16 or higher. Adjustment was made for age, gestation, region of residence, family structure, personal and family history of depression, smoking, secondhand smoke exposure at home and at work, employment, household income, and education.ResultsThe prevalence of depressive symptoms during pregnancy was 19.3%. Compared with unemployment, employment, part-time employment, and full-time employment were significantly associated with a lower prevalence of depressive symptoms during pregnancy: the adjusted odds ratios (ORs) were 0.65 (95% confidence interval [CI]: 0.50 − 0.86), 0.66 (95% CI: 0.46 − 0.95), and 0.66 (95% CI: 0.48 − 0.90), respectively. Regarding the job type held, women with a professional or technical job and those with a clerical or related occupation had a significantly lower prevalence of depressive symptoms during pregnancy: the adjusted ORs were 0.67 (95% CI: 0.47 − 0.96) and 0.62 (95% CI: 0.43 − 0.90), respectively. Sales, service, production, and other occupations were not significantly related to the prevalence of depressive symptoms during pregnancy. There were no relationships between household income or education and the prevalence of depressive symptoms during pregnancy.ConclusionsEmployment, whether full-time or part-time, and holding a professional or technical job or a clerical or related occupation may be inversely associated with the prevalence of depressive symptoms during pregnancy.
Highlights
Epidemiological evidence for the association of socioeconomic status with prenatal depression has been inconsistent
When employment was classified into two categories, part-time and full-time, both part-time and full-time employment were significantly inversely related to the prevalence of depressive symptoms during pregnancy after adjustment for selected potential confounders: the adjusted Odds ratio (OR) were 0.66 and 0.61, respectively
With regard to the job type held, women with a professional or technical job and those with a clerical or related occupation had a significantly lower prevalence of depressive symptoms during pregnancy after adjustment for selected potential confounders: the adjusted ORs were 0.60 and 0.61, respectively
Summary
Epidemiological evidence for the association of socioeconomic status with prenatal depression has been inconsistent. The current cross-sectional study examined the association between employment, job type, household income, and educational level and the prevalence of depressive symptoms during pregnancy. Lancaster et al performed a systematic review to identify risk factors for antenatal depressive symptoms and concluded that life stress, lack of social support, and domestic violence showed a significant association in multivariate analyses; with regard to socioeconomic status, lower income and lower educational levels revealed a small association, while unemployment was not related to depressive symptoms in bivariate analysis [3]. Recent epidemiological evidence for the association of employment, income, and education with depression during pregnancy has been inconsistent [4,5,6,7,8,9,10,11,12,13]. There is no epidemiological evidence for the relationship between job type and antenatal depression
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