Household food insecurity and antepartum depression in the National Children's Study

The purpose of this study was to determine the association between household food insecurity (HFI) and elevated antepartum depressive symptoms (EADS) in the National Children's Study, 2009-2014, as well as standardize our results to the U.S. pregnant population.

HFI was collected at participants' baseline visits using the U.S. Household Food Security Survey Module; antepartum depression symptoms were collected twice during pregnancy using the Center for Epidemiologic Study Depression scale. Generalized estimating equations for binary outcomes were used to estimate the association between HFI and EADS. Inverse probability weighting was used to generalize the effect to the U.S. population using the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey.

Among 746 participants, 20.6% were food insecure. Women who were food insecure were 3.39 times (95% confidence interval: 1.73, 6.62) as likely to report EADS compared with women who were food secure. This estimate was marginally strengthened in a weighted analysis (odds ratio: 3.68; 95% confidence interval: 1.43, 9.43).

This study suggests that women who are food insecure are at a greater risk of EADS, and HFI should be evaluated when assessing antepartum depression.