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. 2019 Jan 14;19(1):26.
doi: 10.1186/s12884-019-2177-y.

Trajectories of maternal depressive and anxiety symptoms from pregnancy to five years postpartum and their prenatal predictors

Asma Ahmed  1 , Angela Bowen  2 , Cindy Xin Feng  3 , Nazeem Muhajarine  4
Affiliations

Trajectories of maternal depressive and anxiety symptoms from pregnancy to five years postpartum and their prenatal predictors

Asma Ahmed et al. BMC Pregnancy Childbirth. .

Abstract

Background: Maternal depression and anxiety have distinct constellations of symptom trajectories, which are associated with factors that may vary between different groups of women. The aim of this study was to identify subgroups of women who exhibit unique longitudinal trajectory patterns of depressive and anxiety symptoms from pregnancy to 5 years postpartum and the antenatal predictors associated with these maternal groups.

Methods: The study used a longitudinal data collected from 615 women in Saskatchewan from pregnancy to 5 years postpartum. Semiparametric group-based models were used to identify latent maternal depressive and anxiety trajectory groups. Multinomial logit models were then used to assess the association between maternal characteristics and the identified latent trajectory groups.

Results: We identified four trajectory groups of maternal depressive symptoms: low-stable (35%); moderate-stable (54%); moderate-increasing (5%); and high-decreasing (6%), and three trajectory groups of maternal anxiety symptoms: very low-stable (13%); low-stable (58%); and moderate-stable (29%). We also identified several risk factors, most notably history of depression and stress, that were significantly associated with these trajectories.

Conclusion: History of depression and increased stress are significant risk factors that can be identified during regular perinatal visits; therefore, clinicians should inquire about these risk factors to identify women at high risk of ongoing depression or anxiety.

Keywords: Longitudinal trajectories; Maternal anxiety; Maternal depression; Mood disorders; Risk factors.

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Conflict of interest statement

Ethics approval and consent to participate

After providing all necessary details, informed written consent was obtained from all participants prior to commencing data collection.

Ethical approval was received from the Research Ethics Board at the University of Saskatchewan (BEH 16–159).

Consent for publication

Not applicable.

Competing interests

The authors declare that they have no competing interests.

Publisher’s Note

Springer Nature remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations.

Figures

Fig. 1
Fig. 1
Trajectory groups of maternal depression symptoms of women from the FIP cohort study (n = 615). The solid lines represent the observed trajectory groups and the dashed lines represent 95% confidence intervals. T1-T5 are the 4th month of pregnancy, the 7th month of pregnancy, 1 month postpartum, 36 months postpartum, and 60 months postpartum respectively
Fig. 2
Fig. 2
Trajectory groups of maternal anxiety symptoms of women from the FIP cohort study (n = 615). The solid lines represent the observed trajectory groups and the dashed lines represent 95% confidence intervals. T1-T5 are the 4th month of pregnancy, the 7th month of pregnancy, 1 month postpartum, 36 months postpartum, and 60 months postpartum respectively
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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