Yi-Fei Sun1, Qing Chang1, Qi-Jun Wu1, Shan-Yan Gao1, Si-Tian Zang1, Ya-Shu Liu1, Yu-Hong Zhao2. 1. Department of Clinical Epidemiology, Shengjing Hospital of China Medical University, No. 36, San Hao Street, Shenyang, Liaoning, MA 110004, China; Clinical Research Center, Shengjing Hospital of China Medical University, Shenyang, China. 2. Department of Clinical Epidemiology, Shengjing Hospital of China Medical University, No. 36, San Hao Street, Shenyang, Liaoning, MA 110004, China; Clinical Research Center, Shengjing Hospital of China Medical University, Shenyang, China. Electronic address: zhaoyuhong@sj-hospital.org.
Abstract
INTRODUCTION: Antenatal depression is common, but most women with the condition choose to remain untreated. The Apgar score, an important indicator of newborn health, has been reported to be influenced by antenatal depression; thus, maternal antenatal depression, as reflected by a poor Apgar score, may harm children's health. AIM: To conduct a systematic review and meta-analysis to explore whether maternal antenatal depression is associated with the neonatal Apgar score. METHODS: We registered the protocol for this study with PROSPERO (CRD42019137585). We searched PubMed, Embase, Web of Science, and the Cochrane Library for published papers that reported the association between depression and Apgar score from inception to December 4, 2019. Two reviewers independently screened and selected the studies according to the inclusion and exclusion criteria, and extracted data according to the predesigned table. Stata version 12.0 software was used to analyze data. RESULTS: We finally identified 13 studies for inclusion, including a total of 12017 women. We did not find an association between antenatal depression and the 1 min Apgar score of neonates (mean difference= -0.03, 95% CI= -0.15-0.09) or the risk of a low Apgar score (OR=1.82, 95% CI=0.51 to 3.13). We found that antenatal depression increased the risk of a low Apgar score at 5 min (OR= 1.91, 95% CI= 1.23-2.59), but the association between the 5 min Apgar score and antenatal depression was not significant (mean difference= -0.001, 95% CI= -0.07-0.07). The results of the subgroup analyses also indicated that there was no association between the 5 min Apgar score and antenatal depression. CONCLUSIONS: Antenatal depression increased the risk of a low 5 min Apgar score; however, we did not find a difference in the mean and distribution of neonatal Apgar scores of mothers with depression and mothers without depression.
INTRODUCTION: Antenatal depression is common, but most women with the condition choose to remain untreated. The Apgar score, an important indicator of newborn health, has been reported to be influenced by antenatal depression; thus, maternal antenatal depression, as reflected by a poor Apgar score, may harm children's health. AIM: To conduct a systematic review and meta-analysis to explore whether maternal antenatal depression is associated with the neonatal Apgar score. METHODS: We registered the protocol for this study with PROSPERO (CRD42019137585). We searched PubMed, Embase, Web of Science, and the Cochrane Library for published papers that reported the association between depression and Apgar score from inception to December 4, 2019. Two reviewers independently screened and selected the studies according to the inclusion and exclusion criteria, and extracted data according to the predesigned table. Stata version 12.0 software was used to analyze data. RESULTS: We finally identified 13 studies for inclusion, including a total of 12017 women. We did not find an association between antenatal depression and the 1 min Apgar score of neonates (mean difference= -0.03, 95% CI= -0.15-0.09) or the risk of a low Apgar score (OR=1.82, 95% CI=0.51 to 3.13). We found that antenatal depression increased the risk of a low Apgar score at 5 min (OR= 1.91, 95% CI= 1.23-2.59), but the association between the 5 min Apgar score and antenatal depression was not significant (mean difference= -0.001, 95% CI= -0.07-0.07). The results of the subgroup analyses also indicated that there was no association between the 5 min Apgar score and antenatal depression. CONCLUSIONS: Antenatal depression increased the risk of a low 5 min Apgar score; however, we did not find a difference in the mean and distribution of neonatal Apgar scores of mothers with depression and mothers without depression.