title: Depression and thoughts of death among disadvantaged mothers: risk factors and impact on maternal and child health.
abstract: Our hypothesess were that modifiable societal risk factors would contribute to depression and thoughts of death (DTD) and that DTD would affect maternal and infant well-being. Retrospective database analysis with bivariate and multivariate statistics utilizing 3 years of data from the prospective Fragile Families and Child Wellbeing Study. Eight hundred and eighty mothers (18%) were clinically depressed; of these, 286 (33%) reported thoughts of death. DTD were significantly associated with family violence and alcohol use; a combination of DTD with family violence or maternal alcohol use markedly increased the risk of infant hospitalization (p-value < 0.001). The association of DTD with problems of violence, substance abuse, and health outcomes underscores the complex relationships among these risk factors. Routine screening for these issues should be implemented.
authors.affiliation: Division of Trauma and Critical Care, Northwestern University, Chicago, Illinois 60611, USA. mcrandall@northwestern.edu
authors.forename: Marie
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Crandall
authors.forename: Lakshmi
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Sridharan
authors.forename: Carol
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Schermer
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D003863:Depression / Q000453:epidemiology / Q000523:psychology*; D005260:Female; D006304:Health Status; D006801:Humans; D007229:Infant Welfare / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D007231:Infant, Newborn; D008429:Maternal Welfare / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D009034:Mother-Child Relations; D009035:Mothers / Q000523:psychology* / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D011203:Poverty / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D012189:Retrospective Studies; D012307:Risk Factors; D012649:Self Concept; D012959:Socioeconomic Factors; D019966:Substance-Related Disorders / Q000453:epidemiology; D013405:Suicide / Q000523:psychology* / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires; D014481:United States / Q000453:epidemiology; D055815:Young Adult