Prenatal maternal depression is associated with low birth weight through shorter gestational age in term infants in Korea

Background: Maternal prenatal depression is associated with lower offspring birth weight, yet the impact of gestational age on this association remains inadequately understood. Aims: We aimed to investigate the effect of prenatal depression on low birth weight, gestational age, and weight for gestational age at term. Study design: Prospective cohort study. Subject: Data were collected from 691 women in their third trimester of pregnancy who went on to give birth to a singleton at term without perinatal complications. One hundred and fifty-two women had a Center for Epidemiologic Studies Depression Scale-10 score >= 10 and were classed as prenatally depressed. Outcome measures: Low birth weight (<2500 g), gestational age at birth, and birth weight percentile for gestational age. Results: Offspring of prenatally depressed women were more likely to be low birth weight (Odds ratio [OR] 2.94, 95% confidence interval [CI] 1.14-7.58) than offspring of prenatally non-depressed women, but the association was attenuated (OR 1.66,95% Cl 0.55-5.02) when adjusted for gestational age. Offspring of prenatally depressed women had lower gestational age in weeks (OR for one week increase in gestational age: 0.66, 95% Cl 0.47-0.93) than offspring of prenatally non-depressed women. There was no association between prenatal depression and birth weight percentile for gestational age. Conclusions: Prenatal depression was not associated with low birth weight at term, but was associated with gestational age, suggesting that association between maternal depression and birth weight may be a reflection of the impact of depression on offspring gestational age. (C) 2013 Elsevier Ireland Ltd. All rights reserved.