The COVID-19 pandemic impact on prenatal depression : A Cross-sectional comparative study

INTRODUCTION: Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) is the current world issue, with huge impact on mental health. More specifically,we expect that it will have a naocif effect on the pregnant women’s mental health and their well being, since they are more likely to be hospitalized and require more intensive care units admission than non- pregnant women. OBJECTIVES: The aim of this work was to evaluate the evolution of depression symptoms in the time of pandemic and their associated factors. METHODS: In the current work, we conducted a comparative in field cross-sectional study. We compared depressive scores and prevalences before and after the COVID-19 outbreak in Tunisia in pregnant women.The sampling period was outside the lockdown period to avoid quarantine bias. The sampling period was from September to October 2020. RESULTS: showed a significantly higher prevalence of depressive symptoms in expecting mothers during the pandemic. Multivariate analysis showed that the pandemic multiplied by 3 the risk of severe depression symptoms. The impact of the COVID-19 period on depression was independent of sociodemographic and obstetric changes related to the pandemic. CONCLUSIONS: These results highlighted the emergency of preparing strategies to avoid post-partum psychiatric disorders and to enable a healthy development of born. Screening the post-partum depression and assessing the mother-children early interactions should be considered in the up-coming births. DISCLOSURE: No significant relationships.