Psychosocial determinants of antenatal anxiety and depression in Pakistan: Is social support a mediator?
- Published
- Accepted
- Subject Areas
- Gynecology and Obstetrics, Psychiatry and Psychology, Public Health, Women's Health
- Keywords
- antenatal anxiety, antenatal depression, sex bias, gender discrimination, social psychology, determinants, social support
- Copyright
- © 2014 Waqas et al.
- Licence
- This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, reproduction and adaptation in any medium and for any purpose provided that it is properly attributed. For attribution, the original author(s), title, publication source (PeerJ PrePrints) and either DOI or URL of the article must be cited.
- Cite this article
- 2014. Psychosocial determinants of antenatal anxiety and depression in Pakistan: Is social support a mediator? PeerJ PrePrints 2:e463v3 https://doi.org/10.7287/peerj.preprints.463v3
Abstract
Introduction: Pregnancy is generally viewed as a time of fulfillment and joy; however, for many women it can be a stressful event. In South Asia it is associated with cultural stigmas revolving around gender discrimination, abnormal births and genetic abnormalities. It is also associated with several psychiatric problems in women, most notably depression and anxiety.
Methodology: This cross-sectional study was done at four teaching hospitals in Lahore from February, 2014 to June, 2014. A total of 500 pregnant women seen at hospital obstetrics and gynecology departments were interviewed with a questionnaire consisting of three sections: demographics, the Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale (HADS) and the Social Provisions Scale (SPS). All data were analyzed with SPSS v. 20. Descriptive statistics were analyzed for demographic variables. Pearson’s chi-squared test, bivariate correlations and multiple linear regression were used to analyze associations between the independent variables and scores on the HADS and SPS.
Results: Mean age among the 500 respondents was 27.41 years (5.65). Anxiety levels in participants were categorized as normal (145 women, 29%), borderline (110, 22%) or anxious (245, 49%). Depression levels were categorized as normal (218 women, 43.6%), borderline (123, 24.6%) or depressed (159, 31.8%). Inferential analysis revealed that higher HADS scores were significantly associated with lower scores on the SPS, rural background, history of harassment, abortion, cesarean delivery and unplanned pregnancies (P < .05). Social support (SPS score) mediated the relationship between the total number of children, gender of previous children and HADS score. Women with more daughters were significantly more likely to score higher on the HADS and lower on the SPS, whereas higher numbers of sons were associated with the opposite trends in the scores (P < .05)
Conclusion: Because of the predominantly patriarchal sociocultural context in Pakistan, the predictors of antenatal anxiety and depression may differ from those in developed countries. Rural women and working women had higher levels of antenatal anxiety and depression, which contradicts earlier findings in western countries. Our study found that higher numbers of daughters were associated with higher levels of depression and anxiety, whereas sons had a protective influence. We therefore suggest that interventions designed and implemented to reduce antenatal anxiety and depression should take into account these unique factors operating in developing countries and patriarchal societies.
Author Comment
This manuscript has been submitted to another journal for publication.
Use of English language has been improved in this version.