ABSTRACT
Objective: To determine the frequency of low birth weight [LBW] babies amongst women who suffer from prenatal depression during 3rd trimester of pregnancy by comparing with control in a military care setup
Study Design: Prospective cohort study
Place and Duration of Study: Study was conducted in Armed Forces Institute of Mental Health [AFIMH] in collaboration with the Department of Gynecology, Military Hospital [MH] Rawalpindi and completed in six months from Mar 2012 to Sep 2012
Material and Methods: Consecutive non-probability sampling was done. Sample size of 172 cases was calculated by World Health Organization [WHO] calculator. Level of significance was 5%, confidence interval 95%, relative risk 2.2 and power of test was 80%
Results: Total 172 cases were enrolled predominantly between 26-30 years i.e. 45.35% [n=39] in cases and 47.67% [n=41] in controls, confidence level was 95% and relative risk was 2.2, mean and SD calculated was 28.32 +/- 3.43 in cases and 27.87 +/- 3.16 years in controls, mean birth score [in grams] of the neonates was 2192.302 +/- 114.22 in cases and 2629.744 +/- 75.33 in controls, comparison of frequency of low birth weight revealed 39.53% [n=34] in cases and 17.44% [n=15] in controls had low birth weight while 60.47% [n=52] in cases and 82.56% [n=71] in control subjects had normal birth weight, Relative risk of outcome variable was 2.23. A p-value of 0.001 showed a significant difference between the two groups
Conclusion: Frequency of LBW babies amongst women who suffer from depression during 3rd trimester by comparing with control is found to be higher