Abstract
OBJECTIVESChild development is a significant issue in global public health, and maternal mental health (MMH) can have a remarkable effect on children’s development of communication skills. We aimed to investigate the association between MMH and communication skills in a sample of Iranian children.METHODSThis study was conducted in Shiraz, Iran during 2016. In total, 640 mothers who lived in Shiraz and were registered in the Fars Birth Cohort (FBC) study were invited to attend the FBC clinic with their children. A trained physician evaluated MMH using the General Health Questionnaire (GHQ). Additionally, a trained nurse assessed the children’s communication development status using the Ages and Stages Questionnaire for 60-month old children.RESULTSThe majority of the mothers were homemakers (82.8%) and had high school diplomas (38.9%). The mothers’ mean age was 33.7±4.6 years. Seventy-nine (12.3%) children had delayed communication skills, but no significant association was found between children’s communication skills and the mothers’ total GHQ score (p=0.43). In total, 493 mothers (77.0%) had abnormal somatic symptoms, 497 (77.7%) had abnormal anxiety/insomnia, 337 (52.7%) had social dysfunction, and 232 (36.3%) suffered from depression. Logistic regression indicated that after adjusting for confounders, the odds of delayed communication skills were 3-fold higher among the children of mothers with abnormal somatic symptoms than among other children (p=0.01).CONCLUSIONSThe study results confirmed that MMH had a significant impact on children’s communication skills. Moreover, maternal abnormal somatic symptoms exerted the strongest impact on the development of communication skills in 5-yearold children.
Highlights
Children’s health and development are significant issues in global public health [1]
Evidence has indicated that early child development is a critical period of life impacted by genetics, in utero development, and maternal demographic features during the prenatal and postnatal periods [2]
640 mothers who had given birth to a child during 2011, lived in Shiraz, and were registered in the Fars Birth Cohort (FBC) study [13] were called through their phone numbers recorded in the FBC data bank
Summary
Children’s health and development are significant issues in global public health [1]. Evidence has indicated that early child development is a critical period of life impacted by genetics, in utero development, and maternal demographic features during the prenatal and postnatal periods [2]. The importance of maternal mental health (MMH) during pregnancy and afterwards, when the baby is rapidly developing and growing, has been underestimated in many studies [3,4,5]. MMH strongly affects children’s growth and poor MMH can have adverse impacts Child health nurses can provide services in other areas of healthcare [10]
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