Abstract
Objectives: To evaluate the impact of psychosocial stress during pregnancy on infant health outcomes in the first postnatal year. Methods: A sample of 3000 women completed a stress inventory (the Psychosocial Hassles Scale) during their third trimester before first childbirth. Infant health outcomes were measured via maternal report at 1, 6 and 12 months postpartum. Poisson regression was used to model the effect of maternal stress during pregnancy on infant health outcomes in the first year, controlling for age, race/ethnicity, education, insurance coverage, marital status, and cigarette smoking during pregnancy. Results: Women who were younger, minority, unmarried, publicly insured and without a college degree were more likely to report high levels of prenatal stress. High prenatal stress was a significant predictor of maternal reporting of gastrointestinal illness (p < 0.0001), respiratory illness (p = 0.025), and total illness in the first year (p < 0.0001). High prenatal stress was also a significant predictor of urgent care visits (p < 0.0001) and emergency department visits (p = 0.001). It was not a significant predictor of hospitalizations (p = 0.36). Conclusions: Maternal prenatal stress is associated with increased maternal reporting of infant illness, as well as increased frequency of both urgent care visits and emergency department visits.
Original language | English (US) |
---|---|
Pages (from-to) | 2587-2597 |
Number of pages | 11 |
Journal | Maternal and child health journal |
Volume | 19 |
Issue number | 12 |
DOIs | |
State | Published - Dec 1 2015 |
All Science Journal Classification (ASJC) codes
- Epidemiology
- Pediatrics, Perinatology, and Child Health
- Obstetrics and Gynecology
- Public Health, Environmental and Occupational Health