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Mapping a Syndemic of Psychosocial Risks During Pregnancy Using Network Analysis.

ABSTRACT: BACKGROUND:Psychosocial risks during pregnancy impact maternal health in resource-limited settings, and HIV-positive women often bear a heavy burden of these factors. This study sought to use network modeling to characterize co-occurring psychosocial risks to maternal and child health among at-risk pregnant women. METHODS:Two hundred pregnant HIV-positive women attending antenatal care in South Africa were enrolled. Measured risk factors included younger age, low income, low education, unemployment, unintended pregnancy, distress about pregnancy, antenatal depression, internalized HIV stigma, violence exposure, and lack of social support. Network analysis between risk factors was conducted in R using mixed graphical modeling. Centrality statistics were examined for each risk node in the network. RESULTS:In the resulting network, unintended pregnancy was strongly tied to distress about pregnancy. Distress about pregnancy was most central in the network and was connected to antenatal depression and HIV stigma. Unintended pregnancy was also associated with lack of social support, which was itself linked to antenatal depression, HIV stigma, and low income. Finally, antenatal depression was connected to violence exposure. CONCLUSIONS:Our results characterize a network of psychosocial risks among pregnant HIV-positive women. Distress about pregnancy emerged as central to this network, suggesting that unintended pregnancy is particularly distressing in this population and may contribute to further risks to maternal health, such as depression. Prevention of unintended pregnancies and interventions for coping with unplanned pregnancies may be particularly useful where multiple risks intersect. Efforts addressing single risk factors should consider an integrated, multilevel approach to support women during pregnancy. TRIAL REGISTRATION:ClinicalTrials.gov identifier: NCT03069417.

SUBMITTER: Choi KW

PROVIDER: S-EPMC6628702 | biostudies-literature | 2019 Apr

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature

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Project description:ObjectiveTo capture multidimensional maternal psychosocial stress using responses from the Edinburgh Postnatal Depression Scale (EPDS) and Cohen's Perceived Stress Scale (PSS) administered during pregnancy, and to identify sociodemographic, biological, and health behavioral correlates of the stress domains.MethodsUsing data from 1,079 pregnant women, we implemented principal component analysis on EPDS and PSS responses and retained factors based on the Scree plot and Eigenvalues >1. We then used linear regression to identify perinatal correlates of each domain.ResultsWe identified three stress domains: "Feeling Overwhelmed," "Anhedonia," and "Lack of Control," which accounted for 10.6% of variance in questionnaire responses. In multivariable analyses, household income ≤$70,000 (β = 0.21 confidence interval [95% CI: 0.05-0.39]), primiparity (0.36 [0.02-0.71]), inadequate (0.21 [0.04-0.39]) or excessive gestational weight gain (0.27 [0.11-0.42]), and Healthy Eating Index (HEI) score ≤57 (0.14 [0.00-0.28]) were associated with Feeling Overwhelmed. Older age (0.02 [0.00-0.03] per 1-year), Hispanic ethnicity (0.19 [0.00-0.38]), and HEI score ≤57 (0.15 [0.02-0.28]) were associated with Anhedonia. Non-Hispanic Black race/ethnicity (0.37 [0.10-0.63]), not having graduated from college (0.16 [-0.02 to 0.35]), having a partner born outside the United States (0.17 [-0.02 to 0.37]), household size of ≥5 persons (0.21 [-0.02 to 0.37]), receiving public assistance (0.18 [-0.02 to 0.37]), and prenatal smoking (0.32 [0.05-0.59]) were associated with Lack of Control.ConclusionsThree domains of maternal psychosocial stress during pregnancy (Feeling Overwhelmed, Anhedonia, and Lack of Control) were differentially related to sociodemographic, biological, and health behavioral characteristics that may be targets for interventions to ameliorate stress in pregnant women.Clinical trial registry: The Healthy Start study is registered as an observational study at clinicaltrials.gov (NCT #002273297).

Project description:Psychosocial stress during pregnancy has been associated with adverse pregnancy outcomes including preterm birth (PTB). This has not been studied in Puerto Rico, an area with high PTB rates. Our objective was to develop a conceptual model describing the interrelationships between measures of psychosocial stress and depression, a result of stress, among pregnant women in Puerto Rico and to examine their associations with PTB. We used data from the Puerto Rico Testsite for Exploring Contamination Threats pregnancy cohort (PROTECT, N = 1,047) to examine associations among depression and different continuous measures of psychosocial stress using path analysis. Psychosocial stress during pregnancy was assessed using validated measures of perceived stress, negative life experiences, neighborhood perceptions and social support. Logistic regression was used to examine associations between psychosocial stress measures in tertiles and PTB. Perceived stress, negative life experiences, and neighborhood perceptions influenced depression through multiple pathways. Our model indicated that perceived stress had the strongest direct effect on depression, where one standard deviation (SD) increase in perceived stress was associated with a 57% SD increase in depression. Negative life experiences were directly but also indirectly, through perceived stress, associated with depression. Finally, neighborhood perceptions directly influenced negative life experiences and perceived stress and consequently had an indirect effect on depression. Psychosocial stress was not associated with PTB across any of the measures examined. Our study examined interrelationships between multiple measures of psychosocial stress and depression among a pregnant Puerto Rican population and identified negative neighborhood perceptions as important upstream factors leading to depression. Our findings highlight the complex relationship between psychosocial stress measures and indicate that psychosocial stress and depression, assessed using 5 different scales, were not associated with PTB. Future research should investigate other environmental and behavioral risk factors contributing to higher rates of PTB in this population.

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Mapping a Syndemic of Psychosocial Risks During Pregnancy Using Network Analysis.

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