The most important risk factors affecting mental health during pregnancy: a systematic review

Pregnant women comprise a vulnerable population owing to the changes they experience in various stages that affect their mental health. Mental health problems affects nearly one-fifth of pregnant women during the prenatal and postpartum periods. Millennium Development Goals 4 and 5 focus on maternal and child health and specify that overall health cannot be reached without mental health.

The aim of this comprehensive systematic review was to evaluate research evidence on the determinants of antenatal mental health disorders among Iranian women.

Using a systematic literature review of observational studies in English and Farsi we focused on Iranian women being evaluated for the determinants of antenatal mental health problems. PubMed, Scopus, ISI Web of Science, Scientific Information Databases (SID), Global Medical Article Limberly, Iranian Biomedical Journal and the Iranian Journal Database were independently searched to identify articles published during 2000-2016.

Thirty-one studies met the inclusion criteria and the results showed a significant relationship between antenatal mental health risks and variables such as lack of social support, marital status, domestic violence, unintended pregnancy and socioeconomic status. The paucity of high quality research evidence limited proper evidenced-based planning and generating results deemed essential to address antenatal mental health issues for Iranian pregnant women.

Our results showed that socioeconomic status and marital quality are the most important risk factors for disturbing mental health among Iranian pregnant women.