Maternal Psychological Symptom Trajectories From 2 to 24 Months Postpartum: A Latent Class Growth Analysis.
Jihye Kim Scroggins, Karin Reuter-Rice, Debra Brandon and 1 others
PMID 38329993WHAT IT FOUND
About 20% of rural postpartum women had increasing psychological symptoms from 2 months, and these groups often had possible depression at 24 months.
Nurses can monitor symptoms and support networks early.
Key findings
01The no-symptoms group included 366 women (29.9%), and the low-symptoms group included 565 women (50.4%), both over 24 months.
02Moderate symptoms increased through 15 months in 170 women (15.2%), and high symptoms increased through 24 months in 51 women (4.5%).
03Possible clinical depression at 24 months was highest in the high-symptoms group (95.56%) and higher in the moderate-symptoms group (55.90%).
STILL TO COME
How it was doneWhat they foundWhat it means for RNs
Read the rest of this summary
You get three full summaries a month, free, and we do not ask for a card. Search, the TL;DRs and your library stay unlimited either way.
What it does not show
The high-symptoms trajectory included only 51 women, so its percentages may be unstable and hard to generalise. The sample was limited to low-income rural mothers from six communities in two US states, so it may not fit urban, higher-income, or other-country patients. Only depression, anxiety, somatization, and hostility were measured, so other postpartum symptoms were not included. About 12.5% of depression outcome data were missing. No intervention was tested, so it cannot show that monitoring, education, or social support changes trajectories or depression.
Declared interests
The authors report no conflicts of interest. The supplied publication types indicate NIH extramural support.
The easy way to misread this
Do not conclude that early symptom monitoring or social support interventions prevent depression. The study only observed symptom patterns and later depression scores in a rural low-income sample.