Mendelian randomization analyses for the causal relationship between early age at first sexual intercourse, early age at first live birth, and postpartum depression in pregnant women

Xuemin Zhao; Linfei Liu

doi:10.3389/fpsyt.2024.1287934

Mendelian randomization analyses for the causal relationship between early age at first sexual intercourse, early age at first live birth, and postpartum depression in pregnant women

Front Psychiatry. 2024 Apr 8:15:1287934. doi: 10.3389/fpsyt.2024.1287934. eCollection 2024.

Authors

Xuemin Zhao¹, Linfei Liu²

Affiliations

¹ Department of Internal Medicine, Chengde Medical University, Chengde, China.
² Sericultural Research Institute, Chengde Medical University, Chengde, China.

Abstract

Introduction: There are insufficient epidemiological studies on the impact of age at first sexual intercourse (AFS) and age at first live birth (AFB) on postpartum depression (PPD) in pregnant women, and the conclusions of these studies are inconsistent.

Methods: We performed a Mendelian randomization (MR) study to determine the causal relationship between AFS or AFB and the risk of PPD. The summary data were extracted from genome-wide association study (GWAS) summary datasets. We selected the instrumental variables according to the P value of exposure-related single nucleotide polymorphisms (P<5 ×10^-9 for AFS and P<5 ×10^-8 for AFB) and estimated the linkage disequilibrium using the clump parameter (10,000 kb, r² < 0.001). Single nucleotide polymorphisms were considered instrumental variables that were significantly associated with exposure factors without linkage disequilibrium. The F-statistics of the instrumental variables should all be larger than 10. A random-effects model of IVW was constructed as the main method in our study.

Results and discussion: MR studies based on GWAS data revealed that both AFS (OR = 0.4, P <0.001) and AFB (OR = 0.38, P <0.001) were negatively correlated with the risk of PPD. Early AFS and early AFB should be studied as possible risk factors for PPD in the future. Public health departments should attach importance to sex education for young girls. The results of our TSMR should be verified by high-quality prospective epidemiological studies in the future.

Keywords: age at first birth; age at first sexual intercourse; causal relationship; postpartum depression; sex education.

Grants and funding

The author(s) declare financial support was received for the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article. The study was funded by Initial Scientific Research Fund for High-Level Talents of Chengde Medical University (201809 and 202204).