Abstract
BackgroundWhile depressive symptoms and stress during pregnancy are known to affect gestational age and weight at birth, evidence on their impact on child anthropometric development in the long term remains limited, showing inconsistent effects. Importantly, previous research indicated a substantially stronger impact of categorically rather than dimensionally assessed mental health problems on birth outcomes and child development.MethodsThe Patient Health Questionnaire was used to assess depressive symptoms and stress during the 2nd trimester of pregnancy dimensionally and categorically, with scores ≥10 indicating clinical significance. Gestational age at birth and BMI-SDS from birth up to 2 years of age were examined as dependent variables. Structural equation modeling was used to examine the prediction of birth outcomes and child anthropometry by mental health problems while controlling for multiple maternal and child characteristics in 322 mother-child dyads.ResultsDimensionally assessed mental health problems did not significantly predict birth outcomes. While categorical depressive symptoms significantly predicted a higher child BMI-SDS, categorical stress significantly predicted a lower gestational age at birth. Neither categorical nor dimensional mental health problems significantly predicted child BMI-SDS at 6, 12, and 24 months postpartum.ConclusionsDepressive symptoms and stress during pregnancy seem to differentially affect birth outcomes, and only if clinically relevant. The results implicate the importance to timely treat pregnant women that are greatly affected by mental health problems to potentially reduce adverse birth outcomes.
Highlights
While depressive symptoms and stress during pregnancy are known to affect gestational age and weight at birth, evidence on their impact on child anthropometric development in the long term remains limited, showing inconsistent effects
Concerning mental health problems, 8.5% (n = 27 of 318) and 5.7% (n = 18 of 318) of pregnant women exceeded the cut-offs for depressive symptoms and stress of clinical significance, respectively
A minor proportion of the sample exceeded the cut-offs for both depressive symptoms and stress (1.9%, n = 6 of 314)
Summary
While depressive symptoms and stress during pregnancy are known to affect gestational age and weight at birth, evidence on their impact on child anthropometric development in the long term remains limited, showing inconsistent effects. Children who were large for gestational age at birth continuously had a higher BMI up to adolescence [3]. Recent evidence by Roy et al showed that during the first 2 years of life a child’s BMI was a better predictor for early childhood obesity than the anthropometric standard measure weight-forlength used in most previous studies [5]. To reduce the current epidemic in overweight and obesity in children, it is important to examine early risk factors of adverse weight development from birth onwards
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