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COVID-19-Related Changes to Pregnant People's Work-Plans Increase Prenatal Depression

The COVID-19 pandemic has caused unprecedented rates of unemployment in the United States. Pregnant workers may be especially affected as they are over-represented in low-wage service and hospitality industries impacted by the pandemic. We surveyed an online convenience sample of currently working p...

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Autores principales: Sherin, Margaret, Gildner, Theresa E., Thayer, Zaneta M.
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: Frontiers Media S.A. 2021
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8594024/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/34816196
http://dx.doi.org/10.3389/fgwh.2021.639429
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author Sherin, Margaret
Gildner, Theresa E.
Thayer, Zaneta M.
author_facet Sherin, Margaret
Gildner, Theresa E.
Thayer, Zaneta M.
author_sort Sherin, Margaret
collection PubMed
description The COVID-19 pandemic has caused unprecedented rates of unemployment in the United States. Pregnant workers may be especially affected as they are over-represented in low-wage service and hospitality industries impacted by the pandemic. We surveyed an online convenience sample of currently working pregnant people living in the U.S. (n = 1,417) to determine whether COVID-19-related changes to how long individuals planned to work during their pregnancy, and uncertainty about these changes, were associated with prenatal depression. As hypothesized, both COVID-19-related work-plan changes (OR = 1.81, 95% CI 1.36–2.42, p < 0.001) and uncertainty about the precise nature of these changes (OR = 2.62, 95% CI 1.14–6.0, p = 0.022) were associated with significantly higher odds of a clinically-significant depression score. These effects appeared to be even greater among individuals who continued working outside the home during the pandemic. Since the U.S. is one of the few countries in the world that does not guarantee paid parental leave, pregnant people may be forced to choose between keeping their jobs and risking infection during the COVID-19 pandemic. Our results demonstrate a need for immediate suspension of the eligibility requirements for the Family and Medical Leave Act and/or universal access to both paid family leave and prenatal depression screening. This would help to alleviate these concerns and provide pregnant people with more options while preserving their employment status and financial security.
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spelling pubmed-85940242021-11-22 COVID-19-Related Changes to Pregnant People's Work-Plans Increase Prenatal Depression Sherin, Margaret Gildner, Theresa E. Thayer, Zaneta M. Front Glob Womens Health Global Women's Health The COVID-19 pandemic has caused unprecedented rates of unemployment in the United States. Pregnant workers may be especially affected as they are over-represented in low-wage service and hospitality industries impacted by the pandemic. We surveyed an online convenience sample of currently working pregnant people living in the U.S. (n = 1,417) to determine whether COVID-19-related changes to how long individuals planned to work during their pregnancy, and uncertainty about these changes, were associated with prenatal depression. As hypothesized, both COVID-19-related work-plan changes (OR = 1.81, 95% CI 1.36–2.42, p < 0.001) and uncertainty about the precise nature of these changes (OR = 2.62, 95% CI 1.14–6.0, p = 0.022) were associated with significantly higher odds of a clinically-significant depression score. These effects appeared to be even greater among individuals who continued working outside the home during the pandemic. Since the U.S. is one of the few countries in the world that does not guarantee paid parental leave, pregnant people may be forced to choose between keeping their jobs and risking infection during the COVID-19 pandemic. Our results demonstrate a need for immediate suspension of the eligibility requirements for the Family and Medical Leave Act and/or universal access to both paid family leave and prenatal depression screening. This would help to alleviate these concerns and provide pregnant people with more options while preserving their employment status and financial security. Frontiers Media S.A. 2021-04-21 /pmc/articles/PMC8594024/ /pubmed/34816196 http://dx.doi.org/10.3389/fgwh.2021.639429 Text en Copyright © 2021 Sherin, Gildner and Thayer. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) and the copyright owner(s) are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
spellingShingle Global Women's Health
Sherin, Margaret
Gildner, Theresa E.
Thayer, Zaneta M.
COVID-19-Related Changes to Pregnant People's Work-Plans Increase Prenatal Depression
title COVID-19-Related Changes to Pregnant People's Work-Plans Increase Prenatal Depression
title_full COVID-19-Related Changes to Pregnant People's Work-Plans Increase Prenatal Depression
title_fullStr COVID-19-Related Changes to Pregnant People's Work-Plans Increase Prenatal Depression
title_full_unstemmed COVID-19-Related Changes to Pregnant People's Work-Plans Increase Prenatal Depression
title_short COVID-19-Related Changes to Pregnant People's Work-Plans Increase Prenatal Depression
title_sort covid-19-related changes to pregnant people's work-plans increase prenatal depression
topic Global Women's Health
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8594024/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/34816196
http://dx.doi.org/10.3389/fgwh.2021.639429
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