A longitudinal cohort study of gestational diabetes mellitus and perinatal depression

BACKGROUND: The association between gestational diabetes mellitus (GDM) and perinatal depression (PND) remains controversial. Our study aimed to comprehensively assess this association in a longitudinal cohort study with repeated measurements of depression. METHODS: Our cohort study was nested in a pilot study of an implementation study aiming to screen and manage perinatal depression within the primary health system in China. Women were recruited in the first trimester from May–September 2019 and followed four times up to 1 year postpartum. Data on sociodemographic characteristics and depression were collected using self-developed questionnaires incorporating the Edinburgh Postnatal Depression Scale (EPDS). Oral glucose tolerance test at 24 ~ 28 weeks and fasting plasma glucose (FPG) data were extracted from medical records. Depression throughout the whole period was divided into different trajectories. Associations of GDM with PND at different time periods and PND of different trajectories were determined by logistic regression. The path of association between blood glucose and depression over time was estimated with an autoregressive cross-lagged model. RESULTS: In total, 1043 women were included in this analysis and 313 (30.0%) were diagnosed with GDM. The prevalence of depression in the first, second, and third trimesters and postpartum period were 17.2, 6.9, 6.8 and 9.0%, respectively. GDM was neither significantly associated with PND at any time point nor with any specific trajectory of depression. Except for autoregressive paths, no cross-lagged path of FPG and scores of EPDS was significant. CONCLUSIONS: Our study indicates no association between GDM/blood glucose and PND. SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1186/s12884-022-04667-2.