Prevalence of perinatal depression among Japanese women: a meta-analysis

Keita Tokumitsu; Norio Sugawara; Kazushi Maruo; Toshihito Suzuki; Kazutaka Shimoda; Norio Yasui-Furukori

doi:10.1186/s12991-020-00290-7

Prevalence of perinatal depression among Japanese women: a meta-analysis

Ann Gen Psychiatry. 2020 Jun 26:19:41. doi: 10.1186/s12991-020-00290-7. eCollection 2020.

Authors

Keita Tokumitsu^{1

2}, Norio Sugawara^{1

3}, Kazushi Maruo⁴, Toshihito Suzuki⁵, Kazutaka Shimoda¹, Norio Yasui-Furukori^{1

6}

Affiliations

¹ Department of Psychiatry, Dokkyo Medical University School of Medicine, Tochigi, 321-0293 Japan.
² Department of Neuropsychiatry, Towada City Hospital, Towada, Japan.
³ Department of Clinical Epidemiology, Translational Medical Center, National Center of Neurology and Psychiatry, Kodaira, Japan.
⁴ Department of Biostatistics, Faculty of Medicine, University of Tsukuba, Ibaraki, Japan.
⁵ Department of Psychiatry, Juntendo Koshigaya Hospital, Saitama, Japan.
⁶ Department of Neuropsychiatry, Graduate School of Medicine, Hirosaki University, Hirosaki, Japan.

Abstract

Background: Perinatal depression is one of the important mental illnesses among women. However, not enough reviews have been done, and a certain consensus has not been obtained about the prevalence of perinatal depression among Japanese women. The purpose of our study is to reveal the reliable estimates about the prevalence of perinatal depression among Japanese women.

Method: We searched two databases, PubMed and ICHUSHI, to identify studies published from January 1994 to December 2017 with data on the prevalence of antenatal or postnatal depression. Data were extracted from published reports.

Results: We reviewed 1317 abstracts, retrieved 301 articles and included 123 studies. The point prevalence of postpartum depression at 1 month was 14.3% incorporating 108,431 Japanese women. The period prevalence of depression at pregnancy was 14.0% in the second trimester and 16.3% in the third trimester. The period prevalence of postpartum depression was 15.1% within the first month, 11.6% in 1-3 months, 11.5% in 3-6 months and 11.5% in 6-12 months after birth. We also identified that compared with multiparas, primiparas was significantly associated with a higher prevalence of postpartum depression; the adjusted relative risk was 1.76.

Conclusions: The prevalence of postpartum depression at 1 month after childbirth was found to be 14.3% among Japanese women. During pregnancy, the prevalence of depression increases as childbirth approaches, and the prevalence of depression was found to decrease in the postpartum period over time. In addition, we found that the prevalence of postpartum depression in primiparas was higher than that in multiparas. Hence, we suggest that healthcare professionals need to pay more attention to primiparas than multiparas regarding postpartum depression.

Keywords: Perinatal depression; Postpartum depression; Prenatal depression.

Publication types

Review