Abstract
ABSTRACTOBJECTIVE To analyze if maternal mental health is associated with infant nutritional status at six month of age.METHODS A cross-sectional study with 228 six-month-old infants who used primary health care units of the city of Rio de Janeiro, Southeastern Brazil. Mean weight-for-length and mean weight-for-age were expressed in z-scores considering the 2006 World Health Organization reference curves. Maternal mental health was measured by the 12-item General Health Questionnaire. The following cutoff points were used: ≥ 3 for common mental disorders, ≥ 5 for more severe mental disorders, and ≥ 9 for depression. The statistical analysis employed adjusted linear regression models.RESULTS The prevalence of common mental disorders, more severe mental disorders and depression was 39.9%, 23.7%, and 8.3%, respectively. Children of women with more severe mental disorders had, on average, a weight-for-length 0.37 z-scores lower than children of women without this health harm (p = 0.026). We also observed that the weight-for-length indicator of children of depressed mothers was, on average, 0.67 z-scores lower than that of children of nondepressed women (p = 0.010). Maternal depression was associated with lower mean values of weight-for-age z-scores (p = 0.041).CONCLUSIONS Maternal mental health is positively related to the inadequacy of the nutritional status of infants at six months.
Highlights
Child malnutrition persists as a major public health problem in developing countries, contributing to 1/3 of under-five deaths[28]
Maternal depression was associated with lower mean values of weight-forage z-scores (p = 0.041)
Maternal mental health is positively related to the inadequacy of the nutritional status of infants at six months
Summary
Child malnutrition persists as a major public health problem in developing countries, contributing to 1/3 of under-five deaths[28]. According to estimates from six cohort studies in developing countries, its eradication could prevent a million deaths from pneumonia, 800 thousand from diarrhoea, 500 thousand from malaria and 200 thousand from measles[2]. According to joint data from the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF), the World Bank, and the World Health Organization (WHO), 161 million children under the age of five were stunted in 2013, which is equivalent to 25.0% of the world population[23]. The most important are social, economic and environmental factors such as parents’ educational attainment and housing conditions, maternal age and work, family size, birth weight, recurrent infections and dietary habits[16,30]
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