IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/plo/pgph00/0003139.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Maternal mental health and nutritional status of infants aged under 6 months: A secondary analysis of a cross-sectional survey

Author

Listed:
  • Mubarek Abera
  • Melkamu Berhane
  • Carlos S Grijalva-Eternod
  • Alemseged Abdissa
  • Nahom Abate
  • Endashaw Hailu
  • Hatty Barthorp
  • Elizabeth Allen
  • Marie McGrath
  • Tsinuel Girma
  • Jonathan CK Wells
  • Marko Kerac
  • Emma Beaumont

Abstract

Maternal/caregivers’ mental health (MMH) and child nutrition are both poor in low- and middle-income countries. Links between the two are plausible but poorly researched. Our aim was to inform future malnutrition management programmes by better understanding associations between MMH and nutritional status of infants aged under six month (u6m). We conducted a health facility-based cross-sectional survey of 1060 infants in rural Ethiopia, between October 2020 and January 2021. We collected data on: MMH status (main exposure) measured using the Patient Health Questionnaire (PHQ-9) and infant anthropometry indicators (outcome); length for age Z-score (LAZ), weight for age Z-score (WAZ), weight for length Z-score (WLZ), mid upper arm circumference (MUAC), head circumference for age Z-score (HCAZ) and lower leg length (LLL). Analysis of secondary data using linear regression was employed to determine associations between the main exposure and outcome variables. The result showed infants’ mean (SD) age was 13.4 (6.2) weeks. The median score for MMH problem was 0 (inter quartile range 0–2) points, and 29.5% and 11.2% reported minimal and mild to severe depression score of 1–4 and 5–27 points, respectively. Mean (SD) LAZ was -0.4 (1.4), WAZ -0.7 (1.3), WLZ -0.5 (1.2), MUAC 12.4 (1.3) cm, HCAZ 0.4 (1.3) and LLL 148 (13.9) mm. In adjusted linear regression analysis, minimal MMH problem was negatively associated with infant LAZ marginally (β = -0.2; 95% CI: -0.4, 0.00; p = 0.05) and LLL (β = -2.0; 95% CI: -3.8, -0.1; p = 0.04), but not with other anthropometric indicators. Statistically significant associations were not found between mild to severe depressive symptoms and infant anthropometric outcomes. In conclusion, only minimal, but not mild, moderate or severe, maternal/caregivers’ depressive symptoms are associated with infant anthropometry outcomes in this data set. Whilst there is a plausible relationship between maternal mental health problems and offspring nutritional status, we did not observed this. Possible reasons include: PHQ-9 not suited to our population; and only a small number of participants reporting moderate to severe level of depression. Further research to investigate and understand the relationship and pathways between maternal mental health and offspring nutritional status is required.

Suggested Citation

  • Mubarek Abera & Melkamu Berhane & Carlos S Grijalva-Eternod & Alemseged Abdissa & Nahom Abate & Endashaw Hailu & Hatty Barthorp & Elizabeth Allen & Marie McGrath & Tsinuel Girma & Jonathan CK Wells & , 2024. "Maternal mental health and nutritional status of infants aged under 6 months: A secondary analysis of a cross-sectional survey," PLOS Global Public Health, Public Library of Science, vol. 4(9), pages 1-15, September.
  • Handle: RePEc:plo:pgph00:0003139
    DOI: 10.1371/journal.pgph.0003139
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://journals.plos.org/globalpublichealth/article?id=10.1371/journal.pgph.0003139
    Download Restriction: no

    File URL: https://journals.plos.org/globalpublichealth/article/file?id=10.1371/journal.pgph.0003139&type=printable
    Download Restriction: no

    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1371/journal.pgph.0003139?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:plo:pgph00:0003139. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    We have no bibliographic references for this item. You can help adding them by using this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: globalpubhealth (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://journals.plos.org/globalpublichealth .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.