Prevalence of Anxiety and Depression among Mothers of Newborns Admitted to Neonatal Intensive Care Units in Gaza Strip

Abstract

Objective: To determine the prevalence and level of anxiety and depression among mothers of newborns admitted to neonatal intensive care units in Gaza Strip. Methods: It is a cross-sectional study including 195 mothers who’s their neonates has been admitted to NICU at the three governmental hospitals in Gaza Strip between November 2017 to September 2018. Two psychological tests were applied, the Hamilton Anxiety Rating Scale and the Beck Depression Inventory. Collected data include sociodemographic profile for mother and neonates who include characteristic of mothers, number and types of deliveries, level of education, work status and family income. In addition, characteristics of neonates, gender, gestational age and birth weight, cause of admission and length of stay. Results: The results of our study indicated that 50.8% of mothers have severe to very severe symptoms of anxiety, 38.5% of mothers have severe to very severe symptoms of depression. There was a statistically significant differences in levels of anxiety (p = 0.044) and levels of depression (p = 0.005) among mothers related to hospital. The mothers of preterm and low birth weight babies had higher levels of anxiety (p = 0.010, 0.026), but there were insignificant differences in levels of depression, while there were no insignificant differences in levels of anxiety and depression among mothers related to gender of neonate, cause of admission, and length of stay in NICU. Conclusion: The effect of different maternal and neonatal factors on levels of anxiety and depression were examined and most of them revealed insignificant differences, which means that admission to NICU as a stressful event caused elevation in levels of anxiety and depression among mothers regardless of any other factors.