Assessment of depression and associated factors in women who admit to Çukurova University obstetrics outpatient clinic: A single-center cross-sectional descriptive study

Objective: Depression is a common psychiatric problem in pregnant women as well as in the general population. Antenatal depression is a problem that should be emphasized, diagnosed and treated early as it impairs the health of both the mother and the baby and predisposes to postpartum depression. Our study aims at examining the prevalence of depression in women presenting to the obstetrics outpatient clinic and the associated risk factors, early recognition of the risky group and raising awareness among health professionals to ensure that measures are taken against depression. Materials and Methods: Our study was planned as a cross-sectional descriptive study and was conducted with 311 consecutive pregnant women aged 18 years and over, with a pregnancy of 14 weeks or more, who could speak Turkish, literate, and who agreed to participate in the study, who were admitted to Çukurova University Obstetrics Outpatient Clinic. Sociodemographic data form, information form including obstetric examination findings of and Edinburgh Postpartum Depression Scale (EPDS) were used as data collection tools. The statistical analysis of the data was evaluated using SPSS (Statistical Package for the Social Sciences) 20.0 package program and the statistical significance level was taken as p<0.05. Results: The mean age of the pregnant women was 28.9±5.9 years, 97.7% (n=304) were married, 42.1% (n=131) were primary school graduates, 29.9% (n=93) were high school graduates, 15.1% (n=47) were employed, 20.6% (n=64) had chronic diseases, and 35.0% (n=109) had a risky condition in their current pregnancy. EPDS scores of 33.76% of the pregnant women were 13 indicating depression risk. There was no significant difference between the risk of depression and age, marital status, regular exercise, consanguineous marriage, spousal violence, and receiving help for the care of the baby (p>0.05). Low education level (p=0.001), not working (p=0.008), having an unemployed spouse (p=0.034), insufficient monthly income (p<0.001), living in an extended family (p<0.001), and having a chronic disease (p=0.028), smoking (p<0.001), having a history of premenstural syndrome (p=0.004), having a previous diagnosis of depression (p<0.001), and not receiving support from their spouses (p<0.001) increased the risk of depression. No significant difference was found between the number of pregnancies, pregnancy type, trimester and the presence of risk in the current pregnancy and the risk of depression (p>0.05). However, those who experienced a risky situation in their previous pregnancy (p=0.038) and those with unplanned pregnancy (p<0.001) were found to have a higher risk of depression. Conclusion: Our study has revealed that low socioeconomic status, low educational level, living in an extended family, smoking, history of chronic diseases, history of premenstural syndrome, previous diagnosis of depression, unplanned pregnancy, experiencing a risky situation in a previous pregnancy, and not receiving support from their spouses were determined as factors increasing the risk of depression in pregnant women. It is important that family physicians should not ignore the mental health of pregnant women during antenatal care, know the screening tests, and identify risky pregnant women. Keywords: Depression, pregnancy, risk factors