The prevalence of mental ill-health in women during pregnancy and after childbirth during the Covid-19 pandemic: a systematic review and Meta-analysis

Delanerolle，Gayathri1,2; McCauley，Mary3; Hirsch，Martin4,5; Zeng，Yutian6; Cong，Xu6; Cavalini，Heitor2; Sajid，Sana2; Shetty，Ashish4,7; Rathod，Shanaya2; Shi，Jian Qing6,8; Hapangama，Dharani K.9; Phiri，Peter2,10

2023-12-01

10.1186/s12884-022-05243-4

BMC Pregnancy and Childbirth   Impact Factor & Quartile

1471-2393

Background: This systematic review aims to explore the prevalence of the impact of the COVID-19, MERS, and SARS pandemics on the mental health of pregnant women. Methods: All COVID-19, SARS and MERS studies that evaluated the mental health of pregnant women with/without gynaecological conditions that were reported in English between December 2000 – July 2021 were included. The search criteria were developed based upon the research question using PubMed, Science Direct, Ovid PsycINFO and EMBASE databases. A wide search criterion was used to ensure the inclusion of all pregnant women with existing gynaecological conditions. The Newcastle-Ottawa-Scale was used to assess the risk of bias for all included studies. Random effects model with restricted maximum-likelihood estimation method was applied for the meta-analysis and I-square statistic was used to evaluate heterogeneity across studies. The pooled prevalence rates of symptoms of anxiety, depression, PTSD, stress, and sleep disorders with 95% confidence interval (CI) were computed. Results: This systematic review identified 217 studies which included 638,889 pregnant women or women who had just given birth. There were no studies reporting the mental health impact due to MERS and SARS. Results showed that women who were pregnant or had just given birth displayed various symptoms of poor mental health including those relating to depression (24.9%), anxiety (32.8%), stress (29.44%), Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) (27.93%), and sleep disorders (24.38%) during the COVID-19 pandemic. Discussion: It is important to note that studies included in this review used a range of outcome measures which does not allow for direct comparisons between findings. Most studies reported self-reported measure of symptoms without clinical diagnoses so conclusions can be made for symptom prevalence rather than of mental illness. The importance of managing mental health during pregnancy and after-delivery improves the quality of life and wellbeing of mothers hence developing an evidence-based approached as part of pandemic preparedness would improve mental health during challenging times. Other: The work presented in this manuscript was not funded by any specific grants. A study protocol was developed and published in PROSPERO (CRD42021235356) to explore several key objectives.

Antenatal care Anxiety Covid-19 Depression Mental ill-health Pregnancy Stress Wellbeing

English

Others

2-s2.0-85146948562

Scopus

1.Nuffield Department of Primary Health Care Sciences,Uuniversity of Oxford,Oxford,United Kingdom
2.Southern Health NHS Foundation Trust,Research and Innovation Department,Clinical Trials Facility,Tom Rudd Unit Moorgreen Hospital,Southampton,Botley Road, West End,SO30 3JB,United Kingdom
3.Liverpool Women’s NHS Foundation Trust,Liverpool,United Kingdom
4.University College London,London,United Kingdom
5.Oxford University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust,Oxford,United Kingdom
6.Southern University of Science and Technology,Shenzhen,China
7.University College London Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust,London,United Kingdom
8.National Center for Applied Mathematics,Shenzhen,China
9.University of Liverpool,Liverpool,United Kingdom
10.School of Psychology,Faculty of Environmental and Life Sciences,University of Southampton,Southampton,United Kingdom

Delanerolle，Gayathri,McCauley，Mary,Hirsch，Martin,et al. The prevalence of mental ill-health in women during pregnancy and after childbirth during the Covid-19 pandemic: a systematic review and Meta-analysis[J]. BMC Pregnancy and Childbirth,2023,23(1).

Delanerolle，Gayathri.,McCauley，Mary.,Hirsch，Martin.,Zeng，Yutian.,Cong，Xu.,...&Phiri，Peter.(2023).The prevalence of mental ill-health in women during pregnancy and after childbirth during the Covid-19 pandemic: a systematic review and Meta-analysis.BMC Pregnancy and Childbirth,23(1).

Delanerolle，Gayathri,et al."The prevalence of mental ill-health in women during pregnancy and after childbirth during the Covid-19 pandemic: a systematic review and Meta-analysis".BMC Pregnancy and Childbirth 23.1(2023).