Prevalence of depression, anxiety and stress symptoms and associated factors among antenatal women – A facility based cross-sectional study

Background: Pregnancy is considered prone to encountering frequent mood changes and emotional disturbances such as stress and mixed anxiety-depressive symptoms. Compromised maternal mental health in the pre-natal period may result in physical complications in newborns like low birth weight, preeclampsia and preterm births with the increased neonatal morbidity. Aim: To estimate the prevalence of the depression, anxiety, stress, and the factors associated with it, among pregnant women attending antenatal clinics. Material and Methods: A cross-sectional study among pregnant women of all trimesters, who attended the antenatal clinic were included. Pregnant women with pre-existing mental health conditions (such as depression, anxiety, or stress) were excluded. Sample size was taken as 314. A semi-structured questionnaire derived from the DASS-21 (Depression, Anxiety and Stress Scale-21 questions) tool was used to assess depression, anxiety, and stress. The responses were classified into different severity levels: normal, mild, moderate, severe, and extremely severe. Results: 92.9% of the mothers were aged above 20 years and among them 52.5% were uneducated. Majority of the participants were suffering from symptoms of anxiety (27.8%), followed by stress (22.92%) and depression (19.1%), most of them being mild and moderate. Factors significantly affecting depression, anxiety and stress were their occupation, co-morbidity, partner support and history of anxiety and depression. In most cases, emotional support from the participant’s mother was sufficient (87.26%) and partner support was also satisfactory. (95.22%). Conclusion: This study revealed the high prevalence of anxiety, depression and stress symptoms in antenatal mothers attending antenatal care services.