Antepartum depression (AD) is a risk factor for adverse pregnancy outcomes and may be worsened by food insecurity (FI) and lack of social support (SS). We studied the progression of AD from mid gestation to term and examined whether such progression differed by measures of SS and longitudinal measures of FI.
Limited data exist on prenatal depression in in high HIV burden resource-poor settings. Population: 403 pregnant clinic attendees at Gulu Hospital, Uganda. HIV (+) women were oversampled in a ratio of 1 HIV (+): 2 HIV (-).
In the two decades since the first Global Burden of Disease (GBD) report was released in 1990, the impacts that HIV infection and major depressive disorders (MDDs) have had on medical and public health systems have changed profoundly. The 2010 GBD report indicates that HIV infection has risen from being the 33rd to the 5th contributor to the global burden of disease (Murray et al. 2013). At the same time, the disease burden attributable to MDDs has risen from being the 15th to the 11th.
To inform perinatal nutrition and mental health interventions, we used a cohort study to: 1) examine the directionality of relationships between maternal food insecurity (MFI) and prenatal depressive symptoms (PDS); and 2) see if social support (SS) or domestic violence (DV) modify this relationship. We enrolled 403 Ugandan pregnant women (33% HIV+ on antiretrovirals)) in mid-gestation and assessed them monthly through delivery for MFI (IFIAS) and the PDS (CES-D) using validated scales.