Association between hospital admission and maternal depression

Background : Maternal mental health is a very important issue. A great proportion of pregnant women are at risk of antenatal depression. Hospital admission would be a contributing factor to develop depression. Objectives: To determine the association between hos-pital admission and maternal depression among pregnant women. Study design: This cross- sectional study was conducted at the obstetrics and gynecology department at a tertiary hospital. The study recruited hospitalized pregnant wom-en for variable causes. A control group including women attending for routine antenatal care was recruited. Screen-ing for depression was done using Arabic validated form of the Edinburgh Postnatal Depression Scale. Compari-son between both groups was done regarding depression scores, prevalence of depression, and suicidal thoughts. Results: There was no difference between both groups but for employment, BMI, and parity. The study group was admitted for a mean duration of 7.3 ± 3.3 days. Only 1 patient (0.9%) in the study group had previous histo-ry of depression. The depression score was significant-ly increased among hospitalized women (13.24 ± 5.01) than the control group (10.32 ± 5.65) (p value 0.0001). High scores denoting depression was evident in a great proportion of the study group (52.8%) than the control group (29.3%). Suicidal thoughts were more prominent in the study group (52.8%) compared to the control group (28.5%) (p value 0.0001). None of the patients’ related factors was associated with depression scores (P value > 0.05). Conclusions: Maternal depression occurred in a great proportion among hospitalized women.