Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
. 2019 Sep 11;9(1):13101.
doi: 10.1038/s41598-019-49508-z.

Maternal anxiety, depression and asthma and adverse pregnancy outcomes - a population based study

Affiliations

Maternal anxiety, depression and asthma and adverse pregnancy outcomes - a population based study

Gustaf Rejnö et al. Sci Rep. .

Abstract

To evaluate associations between maternal anxiety or depression and adverse pregnancy outcomes, taking possible familial confounding and interaction with asthma into account, we conducted a cohort study of all singleton births in Sweden 2001-2013. We retrieved information about pregnancy, diagnoses of anxiety/depression, asthma, and prescribed medication from the Swedish Medical Birth, National Patient, and Prescribed Drug Registers. We estimated associations with regression models, performed cousin and sibling comparisons, and calculated interactions. In 950 301 identified pregnancies; 5.9% had anxiety/depression and 4.0% had asthma. Anxiety/depression was associated with adverse pregnancy outcomes (e.g. preeclampsia, adjusted Odds Ratio 1.17 (95% Confidence Interval 1.12, 1.22), instrumental delivery (1.14 (1.10, 1.18)), elective (1.62 (1.57, 1.68)) and emergency (1.32 (1.28, 1.35)) caesarean section (CS)). Their children had lower birth weight (-54 g (-59, -49)) and shorter gestational age (-0.29 weeks (-0.31, -0.28)). Associations were not confounded by familial factors and asthma did not modify the effect of anxiety/depression for outcomes other than elective CS, p < 0.001. In women with anxiety/depression diagnosis, untreated women had higher odds of elective CS compared to women on medication (1.30 (1.17, 1.43)). In conclusion, anxiety/depression should be considered when evaluating pregnant women's risk of complications such as preeclampsia and non-vaginal deliveries.

PubMed Disclaimer

Conflict of interest statement

H.L. has received research grant from Shire and has received speaker honoraria from Shire and Evolan, all outside the submitted work. The rest of the authors declare that they have no relevant conflicts of interest.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Adjusted odds ratios for the association between anxiety or depression and adverse pregnancy, delivery and perinatal outcomes in all women without asthma and all women with asthma respectively, from the year before pregnancy until delivery. P-values are from testing a multiplicative interaction between anxiety or depression and asthma.
Figure 2
Figure 2
Women in each group of exposures and frequencies of outcomes. Frequencies shown as percentages.

References

    1. Kessler RC, et al. The global burden of mental disorders: an update from the WHO World Mental Health (WMH) surveys. Epidemiologia e psichiatria sociale. 2009;18:23–33. doi: 10.1017/S1121189X00001421. - DOI - PMC - PubMed
    1. Bennett HA, Einarson A, Taddio A, Koren G, Einarson TR. Prevalence of depression during pregnancy: systematic review. Obstet Gynecol. 2004;103:698–709. doi: 10.1097/01.AOG.0000116689.75396.5f. - DOI - PubMed
    1. Woody CA, Ferrari AJ, Siskind DJ, Whiteford HA, Harris MG. A systematic review and meta-regression of the prevalence and incidence of perinatal depression. Journal of affective disorders. 2017;219:86–92. doi: 10.1016/j.jad.2017.05.003. - DOI - PubMed
    1. Shams MR, Bruce AC, Fitzpatrick AM. Anxiety Contributes to Poorer Asthma Outcomes in Inner-City Black Adolescents. The journal of allergy and clinical immunology. In practice. 2018;6:227–235. doi: 10.1016/j.jaip.2017.06.034. - DOI - PMC - PubMed
    1. Labor M, et al. Mood disorders in adult asthma phenotypes. J Asthma. 2018;55:57–65. doi: 10.1080/02770903.2017.1306546. - DOI - PubMed

Publication types