Prevalence and associated risk factors of antenatal depression among women attending antenatal clinics in primary health care centers in the Ministry of Health in Al-Ahsa City, Saudi Arabia.

Abstract

This study was aimed to measure the prevalence and associated risk factors of antenatal depression (AD) among women attending antenatal clinics at primary care centers in the Ministry of Health in Al-Ahsa, Saudi Arabia. A cross-sectional study was conducted on 357 pregnant women attending antenatal clinics at primary care centers, Ministry of Health, Al-Ahsa, Saudi Arabia between April 1, 2018 and July 1, 2019. A self-administered questionnaire was used for collection of information including questions relevant to sociodemographic variables and a screening tool Edinburgh Postnatal Depression Scale (EPDS) was used to assess the probable depression. The prevalence of AD among pregnant women in Al-Ahsa is 31.9%. We found a significant association (<i>P</i> < 0.005) between AD and factors such as difficulty in sleeping, having a smoker husband, having one previous pregnancy, and having postabortion psychological complications. It was observed that depression prevails among pregnant ladies in Al-Ahsa city. Hence, in the present study, we tried to rule out the factors that led to depression in pregnant ladies during our antenatal care. In addition, we found that there is a need to train the physicians for asking questions (only two simple PHQ-2 questions) for the screening of depression during antenatal care visite.