Relationship Between Common Mental Disorder Symptoms During Pregnancy and Preterm Birth Among Chinese Women in Wuhan

Objectives Few studies focus on the symptoms of common mental disorders during pregnancy (CMDP) and risk of preterm birth subtypes (PTB). The purpose of this study was to estimate the association between CMDP and PTB, and to examine whether or not the association between CMDP and PTB varies with the subtype of PTB in Chinese. Methods This population-based case control study, conducted in Wuhan, China, defined cases as every pregnant woman who had a PTB among all births in Wuhan, from June 10, 2011, to June 9, 2013. The same number of pregnant women who had term births was randomly selected as controls. The Electronic Perinatal Health Care Information System, a questionnaire designed for the study, provided data about the participants. Logistic regression analyses were used to model associations between CMDP and PTB, and to test associations between CMDP and two subtypes of PTB. Results The study recruited 8616 cases and an equal number of controls. We successfully collected maternal information on 6656 cases and controls for a response rate of 77.3 %. The incidence of PTB in Wuhan was 4.5 %. Spontaneous preterm births (SPTB) accounted for 60.1 %, and medically induced preterm births (IPTB) accounted for 39.9 % of preterm births. The prevalence rate of CMDP was 15.8 %. CMDP was slightly associated with PTB (crude OR 1.16, 95 % CI 1.01–1.32; adjusted OR 1.15, 95 % CI 1.00–1.32), further analyses showed CMDP was associated with IPTB (aOR 1.25, 95 % CI 1.04–1.50), but not with SPTB. Conclusion Our data suggest that CMDP is related to an increased risk of PTB, and that this association is primarily due to IPTB rather than SPTB.