Global, regional, and national trends in depressive disorder prevalence and DALYs among women of childbearing age from 1990 to 2021 and projections to 2040: a comprehensive analysis from 1990 to 2021

In 2021, it was estimated that there were 121.24 million cases of depression among women of childbearing age worldwide, with disability-adjusted life years (DALYs) accounting for 21.04 million cases. When compared to figures from 1990, these numbers indicate percentage increases of 68% and 69%, respectively. Moreover, despite an overall increase in both global prevalence and DALY rates, this rise was not considered statistically significant, as reflected by an estimated annual percentage change (EAPC) of -0.02 (95% confidence interval: -0.17 to 0.13) for prevalence and -0.06 (95% CI: -0.24 to 0.12) for DALYs. Furthermore, the average annual percentage change (AAPC) was computed to be 0.4789 (95% CI: 0.3289-0.6295; <i>P</i> < 0.001) for prevalence and 0.524 (95% CI: 0.3756-0.6725; <i>P</i> < 0.001) for DALYs. Projections made using our Bayesian age-period-cohort (BAPC) model suggest that we can expect a considerable increase in the global prevalence of depression and DALY rates among women of childbearing age by the year 2040.