The relationship between sleep disturbance in pregnancy and persistent common mental disorder in the perinatal period (sleep disturbance and persistent CMD)

Abstract

Background: Common mental disorder (CMD) and sleep disturbance are two common conditions among women in late pregnancy, affecting up to 20% and 63% of women, respectively, and may adversely affect their quality of life.

Aim: The aim of this study is to examine the relationship between sleep disturbance in pregnancy and persistent CMD among low-income pregnant women living in Brazil.

Methods: This was a prospective cohort study conducted with pregnant women recruited from public primary care clinics in São Paulo, Brazil. We performed a longitudinal analysis of 219 women who had CMD from the Self-Report Questionnaire during the 20–30 weeks of pregnancy. Two groups were examined: (1) those who had CMD remission in the postpartum and (2) those who had persistent CMD in the postpartum (measured once in the postpartum period). Poisson regression was used to estimate the degree of association between sleep disturbance in pregnancy and the risk for persistent CMD postpartum.

Results: After adjusting for sociodemographic and clinical factors, sleep disturbance during pregnancy is associated with persistent CMD (RR = 1.36, 95% confidence interval: 1.01–1.84).

Conclusion: In this sample of low-income pregnant women living in Brazil, the presence of sleep disturbance during pregnancy was associated with persistent common mental disorder in the postpartum period. Identification of sleep disturbance in pregnant women with CMD will be important in order to recognize those women at higher risk of persistent CMD in the postpartum period.

• common mental disorder
• depression
• pregnancy
• sleep disturbance
• women’s mental health

Acknowledgements

The authors thank KeriLee Horan for her thoughtful review of the manuscript, for which no compensation was received.

Declaration of interest

This work was supported by the National Institutes of Health [T32 MH20021-14] and Fulbright Scientific Mobility Scholar Program (to Huang).