Associating socioeconomic position and maternal depression with the health of children: an evaluation of the 2008 Brazilian household survey.

The study analyzed the association between socioeconomic position (income), maternal depression and the health of children in Brazil, using information from the 2008 National Household Survey (PNAD/IBGE). The analysis considered the sampling design for the research and included 46,874 individuals up to the age of nine. The Poisson models were estimated for three health outcomes for children: health as reported by the parents or the responsible person, restrictions on habitual activities for health reasons and periods when they were confined to bed two weeks before the interviews in the study. The results showed an association between the mothers' depression and the three health outcomes, even after taking into account the following: socioeconomic position, maternal characteristics (health self-referral, age, level of education and smoking), age, gender, the child's race, geographical region, the situation as noted in the census and the number of residents in a household. It was found that there still exists an association between maternal depression and children's health irrespective of socioeconomic position. Therefore public policies that aim to reduce the adverse effects of maternal depression on the health of children need to also take into account the higher income segments of society.