Awareness and related factors of depressive symptoms in breastfeeding people in South Korea: a survey-based cross-sectional study

Abstract

Objectives: This study identifies depressive symptoms and the factors that could explain its presence in breastfeeding people.

Design: This study is a cross-sectional study from national survey data.

Setting and participants: Data were derived from the 2019 Korean Community Health Survey. The study subjects were breastfeeding people under the age of 50.

Primary outcome measures: Depressive symptoms in breastfeeding people were classified according to the Patient Health Questionnaire-9 (PHQ-9) score. Physical and health behaviours were considered as factors related to depressive symptoms. A multilevel logistic regression analysis was used.

Results: Among 497 participants, 19.4% (n=97) of breastfeeding people were depressed. We found that depressive symptoms were associated with age (31-35, OR: 0.79, 95% CI: 0.67 to 0.94; 35-49, OR: 0.42, 95% CI: 0.32 to 0.56), rural setting (OR: 0.62, 95% CI: 0.51 to 0.76), economic activity (OR: 0.75, 95% CI: 0.61 to 0.91) and physical health (diabetus mellitus or hypertension, OR: 5.17, 95% CI: 3.78 to 7.06).

Conclusions: This study implies that socioeconomic factors, physical health and health behaviours may influence depressive symptoms in breastfeeding people. These findings should be used as descriptive data to support the development of education programmes to help breastfeeding people.

Keywords: depression & mood disorders; primary care; public health.