Sadia Saeed, Syeda Fariha Hasnny, Tahmeena Ali, Aamna Tanweer, Asma Ali, Maryam Younus.
Existing Antenatal depression among pregnant women attending Antenatal clinic at tertiary care hospital, Karachi.
Pak J Surg Jan ;35(4):335-41.

Objective: To assess the frequency of existing antenatal depression and its associated factors among pregnant women attending antenatal clinic at tertiary care hospital, Karachi. Study design:Cross-sectional study. Place and duration of study: This study was conducted at "Hamdard Medical University", Karachi from January 2019 - April 2019. Material and Methods: A total of 150 pregnant women presenting for obstetrics antenatal clinical visits included in the study by the non-probability consecutive sampling technique. Socio demographic variables and obstetric details were compiled. Ethical permission was taken from the Institutional review board of the hospital. Antenatal depression was evaluated as per the Patient Health Questionnaire-9 (PHQ-9) scale, a nine-item module with a score ranging from 0 to 27 with a score of 10 or above set as the cut-off point. Results: Mean age of pregnant women was 27.45+-3.21 years, Patient Health Questionnaire-9 score mean value was 7.65+-3.9. 132(88%) women were multigravida and only 18(12%) women were primigravida. History of depression during pregnancy was found in 93(62%) women. Out of these 150 antenatal attendees, 104(69.7%) screened negative for depression (PHQ score < 10), 46(30.7%) screened positive for depression at PHQ scores>=10. Conclusion: This study concludes that approximately 1/3 rd of our study population experienced antenatal depression which is quite high. Furthermore; factors associated with the antenatal depression also identified in this study which shows that young age, low education, low socio-economic status, primigravida, history of miscarriage, history of neonatal death, previous cesarean section, recent stressful event and co-morbidities have significant association with depression among pregnant women. Depending upon the results of our study, we recommend awareness program for depression during pregnancy in order to prevent fetomaternal complications.

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