depressive symptoms in vietnamese women with gestational diabetes mellitus: a cross-sectional study

This study aims to identify the prevalence of pregnant women with gestational diabetes mellitus who have depressive symptoms according to edinburgh postnatal depression scale (epds) and depression-related factors. a cross-sectional study was conducted on 333 pregnant women with gestational diabetes mellitus at the department of high-risk pregnancy of hung vuong hospital, vietnam, from march 6th to may 31st, 2020. participants were screened using the edinburgh postnatal depression scale. multivariate analysis with a logistic regression model was used to identify related factors. the prevalence of pregnant women with gdm who have depressive symptoms was 16.82% [95% ci: 12.96 - 21.28]. the following risk factors for depressive symptoms were also identified among pregnant women with gdm: (i) confiding in friends while feeling unhappy or anxious increased the risk of depression by 3.23 times (adjusted odds ratio [oradj] = 3.23; 95% ci [1.02 - 9.38]; p = 0.035), while confiding in siblings increased the risk by 6.55 times (oradj = 6.55; 95% ci [1.23 - 33.14]; p = 0.023). (ii) the longer the period from gdm diagnosis to screening, the less likely a woman is to develop depression during pregnancy. specifically, an increase of one week resulted in a 0.9-fold decrease in the risk of depression (oradj = 0.9; 95% ci [0.83 - 0.96]; p = 0.003). depression screening should be included as a routine point of care for pregnant women with gestational diabetes mellitus. women who exhibit symptoms of depression should receive treatment from specialists to prevent further complications.