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Maternal depression increases infant risk of diarrhoeal illness: a cohort study
Author(s) -
Reading Richard
Publication year - 2007
Publication title -
child: care, health and development
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.832
H-Index - 82
eISSN - 1365-2214
pISSN - 0305-1862
DOI - 10.1111/j.1365-2214.2007.00737_3.x
Subject(s) - medicine , depression (economics) , cohort , cohort study , pediatrics , demography , psychiatry , pathology , sociology , economics , macroeconomics
Maternal depression increases infant risk of diarrhoeal illness: a cohort study.
Rahman A. , Bunn J. , Lovel H. & Creed F.(2007)Archives of Disease in Childhood,92,24–28.Aims To examine the associations between post‐natal depression in mothers and diarrhoeal illness in their infants in the first year of life in a low‐income country. Methods Using a prospective cohort design, 265 infants ( n = 130 of mothers having a depressive episode according to the International Classification of Diseases , 10th revision, at 3 months post‐natal and n = 135 of psychologically well mothers), living in rural Rawalpindi, Pakistan, were followed up for 1 year. Frequency of diarrhoeal episodes was measured fortnightly by health workers using a standard questionnaire. Results Infants of depressed mothers had significantly more diarrhoeal episodes per year than those of controls (mean 5.5 vs. 4.0; 95% CI 0.9–2.0). The relative risk of having ≥5 diarrhoeal episodes per year in infants of depressed mothers was 2.3 (95% CI 1.6–3.1). The association remained significant after adjustment for other risk factors by multivariate analysis. Conclusions Maternal depression is associated with infant diarrhoeal morbidity in a low‐income community setting. It is independent of the effects of known factors such as under‐nutrition, socio‐economic status and parental education. Preventive child health programmes targeting mothers must consider their mental health.