Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
Observational Study
. 2024 Dec 19:12:1417791.
doi: 10.3389/fpubh.2024.1417791. eCollection 2024.

Depressive and anxiety symptoms in postpartum women after recovery from COVID-19: a questionnaire-based observational study

Chia-Jung Hsieh  1 , Hsiu-Wei Su  1 , Chen-Yu Lee  2 , Chih-Chien Lin  3 , Wei-Chih Chen  1
Affiliations
Observational Study

Depressive and anxiety symptoms in postpartum women after recovery from COVID-19: a questionnaire-based observational study

Chia-Jung Hsieh et al. Front Public Health. .

Abstract

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; anxiety; depression; mental health; postpartum.

PubMed Disclaimer

Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare that the research was conducted in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as a potential conflict of interest.

References

    1. Zhang X, Wang C, Zuo X, Aertgeerts B, Buntinx F, Li T, et al. . Study characteristical and regional influences on postpartum depression before vs. during the COVID-19 pandemic: a systematic review and meta-analysis Front Public Health. (2023) 11:1102618. 10.3389/fpubh.2023.1102618 - DOI - PMC - PubMed
    1. Low SR, Bono SA, Azmi Z. Prevalence and factors of postpartum depression during the COVID-19 pandemic: a review. Curr Psychol. (2023) 1–18. 10.1007/s12144-022-04181-w - DOI - PMC - PubMed
    1. Shayan NA, Azizi AT, Razaqi N, Afzali H, Neyazi A, Waez H, et al. . Phase wise assessment of COVID-19 related depression, anxiety, and stress level among patients in Herat city, Afghanistan - a descriptive study. Razi Int Med J. (2021) 1. 10.56101/rimj.v1i1.14 - DOI
    1. Gao S, Su S, Zhang E, Liu R, Zhang Y, Wang C, et al. . Psychological health status in postpartum women during COVID-19 pandemic: a systematic review and meta-analysis. J Affect Disord. (2022) 319:99–111. 10.1016/j.jad.2022.08.107 - DOI - PMC - PubMed
    1. Lebel C, MacKinnon A, Bagshawe M, Tomfohr-Madsen L, Giesbrecht G. Elevated depression and anxiety symptoms among pregnant individuals during the COVID-19 pandemic. J Affect Disord. (2020) 277:5–13. 10.1016/j.jad.2020.07.126 - DOI - PMC - PubMed

Publication types

Grants and funding

The author(s) declare that no financial support was received for the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article.