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ORIGINAL RESEARCH article

Front. Public Health
Sec. Public Mental Health
Volume 12 - 2024 | doi: 10.3389/fpubh.2024.1417791
This article is part of the Research Topic COVID and Perinatal Mental Health 2023: Lessons Learnt and Future Directions for Research View all 3 articles

Depressive and Anxiety Symptoms in Postpartum Women After Recovery from COVID-19: A Questionnaire-based Observational Study

Provisionally accepted
Chia-Jung Hsieh Chia-Jung Hsieh 1Hsiu-Wei Su Hsiu-Wei Su 1Chen-Yu Lee Chen-Yu Lee 2Chih-Chien Lin Chih-Chien Lin 3Wei-Chih Chen Wei-Chih Chen 1*
  • 1 Department of Obstetrics, Gynecology and Women’s Health, Taichung Veterans General Hospital, Taichung, Taiwan
  • 2 Department of Nursing, Taichung Veterans General Hospital, Taichung, Taiwan
  • 3 Department of Psychiatry, Taichung Veterans General Hospital, Taichung, Taiwan

The final, formatted version of the article will be published soon.

    Introduction: Previous studies on the association between recovery from Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) infection and postpartum depressive and anxiety symptoms had conflicting results. This study aimed to investigate the psychological burdens among postpartum women who had experienced COVID-19 infection during their pregnancies and those who had not. Methods: This cross-sectional study was conducted at Taichung Veterans General Hospital in Taiwan from April 2022 to January 2023. A total of 113 postpartum women completed self-reported questionnaires, including the Edinburgh Postnatal Depression Scale (EPDS) and General Anxiety Disorder-7 (GAD-7), in the postpartum clinics or wards. Results: Fifty-four individuals (47%) who experienced COVID-19 infection during their pregnancies and 59 uninfected women completed the questionnaires. The mean EPDS scores were 5.00 ± 4.26 vs 6.46 ± 4.50 (p=0.09) and the mean GAD-7 scores were 3.17 ± 2.88 vs 3.69 ± 2.73 (p=0.21). Multivariate linear regression analyses revealed that factors associated with lower EPDS scores included experiencing COVID-19 infection during pregnancy, delivery by expected mode, and neonates not requiring admission to the Intensive Care Nursery (ICN) or Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU). Delivery by expected mode was the only variable associated with a lower GAD-7 score in the multivariate model. Conclusion: Our study demonstrated that COVID-19 infection during pregnancy was associated with fewer postpartum depressive symptoms based on linear regression analysis, with no significant difference in postpartum anxiety symptoms.

    Keywords: COVID-19, Depression, Anxiety, Postpartum, Mental Health

    Received: 15 Apr 2024; Accepted: 20 Nov 2024.

    Copyright: © 2024 Hsieh, Su, Lee, Lin and Chen. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.

    * Correspondence: Wei-Chih Chen, Department of Obstetrics, Gynecology and Women’s Health, Taichung Veterans General Hospital, Taichung, Taiwan

    Disclaimer: All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations, or those of the publisher, the editors and the reviewers. Any product that may be evaluated in this article or claim that may be made by its manufacturer is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher.