Anxiety and depressive symptoms of women in the perinatal period during the COVID-19 pandemic: A systematic review and meta-analysis

Abstract

Aims: The prevalence of perinatal anxiety and depressive symptoms have been speculated to increase during an infectious disease outbreak but remains unknown in the context of the COVID-19 situation. Therefore, this review aimed to examine the prevalence of antenatal and postnatal anxiety and depressive symptoms among pregnant women and postpartum mothers during the COVID-19 period.

Methods: Six electronic databases were systematically searched for articles from November 2019 to December 2020. Twenty-six observational studies and brief reports were included in the meta-analysis.

Results: Overall, the prevalence of anxiety was greater than depression in both antenatal and postnatal periods, and the prevalence of depression was higher in the antenatal period than the postnatal period. The pooled prevalence for antenatal anxiety symptoms, antenatal depressive symptoms and postnatal depressive symptoms were 40% (95% confidence intervals (CI): 0.27-0.52), 27% (95% CI: 0.20-0.33) and 17% (95% CI: 0.10-0.24), respectively. Europe (56%, 95% CI: 0.28-0.85) had significantly higher prevalence of antenatal anxiety than Asia (16%, 95% CI: 0.09-0.23).

Conclusions: The heightened prevalence of perinatal psychological disorders served as an impetus for healthcare professionals and policy makers to ramp up their support and mitigation strategies for pregnant women and mothers in times of health crisis.

Keywords: Anxiety; depression; pandemic; postpartum period; pregnancy; review.