Date of Award
2011
Degree Type
Dissertation
Degree Name
Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)
Department
Nursing
Abstract
Antenatal depression occurs in about 20% of all pregnancies and gestational diabetes occurs in up to 14% of all pregnancies. Although there is sufficient information on (1) depression during pregnancy and (2) depression and diabetes, there is little information about depression and gestational diabetes. This comparative, longitudinal research study was done to better understand the relationship between gestational diabetes and depression. The study aims were the following: (1) to determine whether women with gestational diabetes had more depression than women without gestational diabetes, (2) to determine whether factors predictive of depression in pregnant women with gestational diabetes were different from women without gestational diabetes, and (3) to determine if minorities were more at risk for depression during pregnancy than Caucasians. The sample included 135 pregnant women between 24 and 40 weeks' gestation, of which 65 had gestational diabetes (GDM) and 70 had no gestational diabetes (NGDM). Depression, anxiety, stress, and social support were measured using self-report questionnaires completed during a prenatal care visit. Delivery outcomes were collected from the electronic medical record. Using the CES-D, 28% of the entire sample had depression and 32% of women with GDM had depression compared to 24% of women with NGDM, although the difference was not statistically significant. However, women with GDM were 2.7 times more likely to have depression (OR=2.72, 95% CI, 1.04, 7.13, p =.041). Also, women with GDM were 3.07 times as likely to have a history depression (OR=3.07, 95% CI, 1.01, 9.49, p = .05). Trait anxiety was found to be a significant predictor of prenatal depression (p<.001). No significant difference was found between race and depression. There were no clinically significant findings in delivery outcomes between women with and without GDM or between women with and without depression. This study may improve the prenatal care of women with depression and gestational diabetes during pregnancy.
Recommended Citation
Byrn, Mary Alice, "Gestational Diabetes, Depression, and the Impact on Maternal Child Health Outcomes" (2011). Dissertations. 193.
https://ecommons.luc.edu/luc_diss/193
Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 License.
Copyright Statement
Copyright © 2011 Mary Alice Byrn
