Gestational diabetes and risk of perinatal depression in low- and middle-income countries: a meta-analysis

Yuqing Jin; Chengkai Wu; Wanlin Chen; Jingsong Li; Haiteng Jiang

doi:10.3389/fpsyt.2024.1331415

Gestational diabetes and risk of perinatal depression in low- and middle-income countries: a meta-analysis

Front Psychiatry. 2024 Feb 12:15:1331415. doi: 10.3389/fpsyt.2024.1331415. eCollection 2024.

Authors

Yuqing Jin^{1

2}, Chengkai Wu², Wanlin Chen³, Jingsong Li^{2

4}, Haiteng Jiang^{1

5}

Affiliations

¹ Affiliated Mental Health Center & Hangzhou Seventh People's Hospital and School of Brain Science and Brain Medicine, Zhejiang University School of Medicine, Hangzhou, China.
² Research Center for Healthcare Data Science, Zhejiang Laboratory, Hangzhou, China.
³ Department of Psychology and Behavioral Sciences, Zhejiang University, Hangzhou, Zhejiang, China.
⁴ Engineering Research Center of Electronic Medical Record (EMR) and Intelligent Expert System, Ministry of Education, College of Biomedical Engineering and Instrument Science, Zhejiang University, Hangzhou, China.
⁵ Liangzhu Laboratory, Ministry of Education (MOE) Frontier Science Center for Brain Science and Brain-machine Integration, State Key Laboratory of Brain-machine Intelligence, Zhejiang University, Hangzhou, China.

Abstract

Background: The relationship between gestational diabetes (GDM) and the risk of depression has been thoroughly investigated in high-income countries on their financial basis, while it is largely unexplored in low- and middle- income countries. This meta-analysis aims to assess how GDM influences the risk of perinatal depression by searching multiple electronic databases for studies measuring the odds ratios between them in low- and middle-income countries.

Methods: Two independent reviewers searched multiple electronic databases for studies that investigated GDM and perinatal mental disorders on August 31, 2023. Pooled odds ratios (ORs) and confidence intervals (CIs) were calculated using the random effect model. Subgroup analyses were further conducted based on the type of study design and country income level.

Results: In total, 16 observational studies met the inclusion criteria. Only the number of studies on depression (n=10) satisfied the conditions to conduct a meta-analysis, showing the relationship between mental illness and GDM has been overlooked in low- and middle-income countries. Evidence shows an elevated risk of perinatal depression in women with GDM (pooled OR 1.92; 95% CI 1.24, 2.97; 10 studies). The increased risk of perinatal depression in patients with GDM was not significantly different between cross-sectional and prospective design. Country income level is a significant factor that adversely influences the risk of perinatal depression in GDM patients.

Conclusion: Our findings suggested that women with GDM are vulnerable to perinatal depressive symptoms, and a deeper understanding of potential risk factors and mechanisms may help inform strategies aimed at prevention of exposure to these complications during pregnancy.

Keywords: developing countries; gestational diabetes; mental disorders; meta-analysis; perinatal depression; pregnancy.

Publication types

Systematic Review

Grants and funding

The author(s) declare financial support was received for the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article. This work was supported by the Fundamental Research Funds for the Central Universities (grant number 226-2022-00138 to HJ), Hangzhou Biomedical and Health Industry Special Projects for Science and Technology (grant number 2021WJCY240 to HJ), STI2030-Major Projects (grant number 2022ZD0212400 to HJ) and National Natural Science Foundation of China (grant number 82371453 to HJ).