Bulletin of the World Health Organization

Maternal depression and early childhood growth in developing countries: systematic review and meta-analysis

Pamela J Surkan, Caitlin E Kennedy, Kristen M Hurley & Maureen M Black

Volume 89, Number 8, August 2011, 608-615E

Table 2. Qualitya of studies included in systematic review of maternal depression and child growth in developing countries, 1996–2010

Study design Selection
 Exposure
 Comparability
Representative study sampleb Response rate ≥ 80%c Depression assessed using diagnostic testd Adjustment for 2 or more demographic variablese
Prospective longitudinal cohort
Patel et al. 200331 No Yes No No
Rahman et al. 200433 Yes Yes Yes Yes
Tomlinson et al. 200635 Yes No Yes No
Santos et al. 201038 Yes Yes No Yes
Case–control
Adewuya et al. 200834 No NA Yes Yes
Anoop et al. 200429 NA NA Yes Yes
Baker-Henningham et al. 2003f,25 No Yes No Yes
Carvalhaes et al. 200236 Yes Yes No Yes
de Miranda et al. 199637 No NA No Yes
Rahman et al. 200432 No NA No Yes
Cross-sectional
Black et al. 2009g,24 No No No Yes
Harpham et al. 200530 Yes Yes No Yes
Harpham et al. 200530 Yes Yes No Yes
Harpham et al. 200530 Yes Yes No Yes
Harpham et al. 200530 Yes No No Yes
Stewart et al. 200823 No Yes No Yes
Surkan et al. 200839 Yes Yes No Yes

NA, not available (data were either incomplete or not reported); OR, odds ratio.

a Study quality was assessed using a checklist adapted from the Newcastle–Ottawa Scale for assessing the quality of nonrandomized studies in meta-analyses.

b Women and children included in the study were representative of the community.

c Individuals who refused to participate and those lost to follow-up were included in calculating the response rate.

d Individuals who were not assessed using a diagnostic test for depression were assessed using a measure of depressive symptoms or of common mental disorders.

e The analysis of the relationship between maternal depression and child growth was adjusted for at least two demographic variables.

f In this study, multivariate adjustments were made for more than two demographic variables. However, the data used in our meta-analysis were based on crude estimates because maternal depressive symptoms were not included in the final adjusted model due to the stepwise procedure.

g In this study, multivariate adjustments were made for growth outcomes as continuous variables but only the crude OR was presented in the paper. For the meta-analysis, ORs were based on an adjusted analysis of data obtained from the authors of the original study.