Brazilian Journal of Psychiatry (Feb 2024)

The association between maternal fears about their infant/toddler during the COVID-19 pandemic and depression and anxiety: a birth cohort study

  • Raquel Wermann Foschiera,
  • Júlia Pustrelo Moro,
  • Fabiana de Abreu Getulino,
  • Marina Xavier Carpena,
  • Francine dos Santos Costa,
  • Cauane Blumenberg,
  • Rafaela Costa Martins,
  • Thais Martins-Silva,
  • Luana Patrícia Marmitt,
  • Alejandra Goicochea,
  • Rodrigo Meucci,
  • Juraci Cesar,
  • Christian Loret de Mola

DOI
https://doi.org/10.47626/1516-4446-2023-3306
Journal volume & issue
Vol. 45, no. 6
pp. 491 – 497

Abstract

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Objective: To assess the association between maternal fears about their infant/toddler and depression and anxiety during the COVID-19 pandemic. Methods: In 2019, all mothers who gave birth in hospitals in Rio Grande, RS, Brazil were asked to respond to a standardized questionnaire (baseline). We followed them between May-June 2020 (first follow-up point), August-December 2020 (second follow-up point), and from October 2021 to March 2022 (third follow-up point), and asked them if they were: (1) afraid that their infant/toddler would become infected with COVID or get sick (yes/no), (2) afraid that they would contaminate their own child with COVID, and/or (3) worried about the pandemic’s effects on their child’s future. At baseline and at all follow-up points, we assessed depressive symptoms using the Edinburgh Postnatal Depression Scale and anxiety symptoms using the Generalized Anxiety Disorder Scale, creating symptom trajectories using group-based trajectory modelling. We used multinomial logistic regression to calculate adjusted relative risk ratios (RRR). Results: A total of 1,296 mothers participated. Worrying about the pandemic’s effects on their child’s future and the fear of contaminating their own child with COVID-19 increased the risk of raising depressive symptoms to a clinical level (RRR = 4.97, 95%CI 2.32-10.64 and RRR = 3.87, 95%CI 1.58-9.47, respectively) and anxiety to a moderate level (RRR = 2.91, 95%CI 1.69-5.01 and RRR = 1.86, 95%CI 1.03-3.35, respectively). Conclusion: Fear for their children increased maternal depressive and anxiety symptoms during the pandemic.

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