Eczema possesses an increasing danger in infant’s health and the role of maternal depression with the early onset is not very clear. A study was conducted to observe the associations of different exposure of prenatal depressive symptoms of mothers with their offsprings eczema in infancy.

The study was part of the ongoing Guangzhou Cohort study. Maternal depressive symptoms were evaluated at early (< 20th week of gestation) and late pregnancy (≥ 33th week of gestation to delivery) by self-rating depression scale. Multivariable logistic regression was used to investigate the association between prenatal depressive symptoms and infants eczema by parental history of allergic diseases.

Nearly, 7.7% (447/5825) of mothers experienced depressive symptoms that are persistent during pregnancy. About 10.1% (590/5825) mothers experienced depressive symptoms only at early pregnancy and 8.4% (489/5825) of women experienced depressive symptoms in late pregnancy.

Higher risks of eczema were found in infants of mothers with persistent prenatal depressive symptoms as compared to those children without maternal depressive symptoms during the entire pregnancy.

The study revealed that persistent maternal depressive symptoms during pregnancy have an increased risk of infants eczema, especially in children without family history of allergic ailments. These associations can be an intervention objective to improve womens health and also to prevent infant’s eczema.

Source: Wei D, Au Yeung SL, Lu M, et al. Association between prenatal depressive symptoms and eczema in infants: The Born in Guangzhou Cohort Study. Pediatr Allergy Immunol. 2020 Apr 16. doi: 10.1111/pai.13254. [Epub ahead of print]