The Impact of Prenatal Mental Health Disorders on Birth Outcomes before and during the COVID-19 Pandemic in Anhui, China

• Author / Creator

  Zhao, Tianqi

• Adverse birth outcomes, including low birth weight, preterm birth, and small for gestational age are associated with increased neonatal morbidity and mortality globally. In China, adverse birth outcomes remain challenging public health problems. Prenatal depression and anxiety have been found to be associated with these adverse birth outcomes. In China, there is increasing literature that reported the importance and severity of prenatal depression and anxiety. The severity of the COVID-19 pandemic is likely to exacerbate mental health problems during the prenatal period and increase the risk of adverse birth outcomes, possibly adding further burden to the current healthcare system in China. The aim of this research is to explore the impacts of prenatal mental health issues on birth outcomes before and during the COVID-19 pandemic in Anhui, China. Insights generated through this work will help fill an existing knowledge gap in China and help stakeholders to gain a better understanding of how the pandemic could have impacted perinatal health.A scoping review methodology was used in Chapter 2 to identify peer-reviewed articles published from late 2019 to the end of July 2021. After removing duplicates, 642 articles were identified, of which two full texts were included for analysis. Both articles highlighted that pregnant women have experienced increasing prenatal mental health issues during the COVID-19 pandemic and, further, increased risk of developing adverse birth outcomes. This scoping review highlighted that there is a lack of research on the impact of prenatal mental health issues on birth outcomes during the pandemic.Study presented in Chapter 3 found that during the pandemic, the prevalence of prenatal depression and anxiety decreased compared to levels before the pandemic. The prevalence of adverse birth outcomes, including low birth weight, preterm birth and small for gestational age also slightly decreased after the pandemic occurred, but the differences were not significant and could be due to other factors, such as sample differences. Interestingly, this study showed that higher PHQ-9 measured depression scores were significantly associated with higher infant birth weights (β=5.51, 95% CI 0.21 to 10.81, p=0.042) and longer gestation age (β=0.02, 95% CI 0.001 to 0.04, p=0.03). Furthermore, EPDS measured prenatal depression and GAD-7 measured anxiety were not significantly associated with birth outcomes. In addition, findings also provided insights into prenatal mental health disorders and adverse birth outcomes by exploring the sociodemographic risk factors for prenatal depression and anxiety, preterm birth, low birth weight and small for gestational age before and during the pandemic in Anhui.

• Subjects / Keywords

  • Prenatal mental health
  • Adverse birth outcomes
  • COVID-19

• Graduation date

  Fall 2022

• Type of Item

  Thesis

• Degree

  Master of Science

• DOI

  https://doi.org/10.7939/r3-rvqv-3a89

• License

  This thesis is made available by the University of Alberta Library with permission of the copyright owner solely for non-commercial purposes. This thesis, or any portion thereof, may not otherwise be copied or reproduced without the written consent of the copyright owner, except to the extent permitted by Canadian copyright law.