Maternal Depression And Non-Specific Health Complaints In The Offspring: A Cross-Sectional Study In Danish Primary Care

BackgroundMaternal depression has been linked to adverse outcomes in the offspring. Existing literature is many based on parental reports, which can be an unreliable source when the parent has depression.AimTo explore if maternal depression was associated with daily health complaints and low self-assessed health (SAH) in the offspring.Design and settingParticipants were 45 727 children from the Danish National Birth Cohort recruited between 1996 and 2002. At 11-year follow-up, mothers and their children were invited to complete a questionnaire. Maternal depression was categorised into: no depression, first time treatment, continued treatment, post treatment. and relapse.MethodBinomial regression was used to estimate the adjusted prevalence proportion ratio [aPPR] of frequent health complaints and low SAH in children of mothers with depression compared to children of mothers without depression.ResultsThe prevalence of any daily health complaint was 114%, daily somatic complaints 4.1%, daily mental complaints 8.9%, both daily mental and somatic complaints 15%, and low SAH 5.3%. Children of mothers with depression (any category) were more likely to report a daily health complaint: first-time treatment aPPR 1.35 (95% confidence interval [co_ 0.96 to 1.85). continued treatment aPPR 1.59 (95% CI = 1.37 to 1.85). post-treatment aPPR 1.30 (95% CI = 1.20 to 1.41), and relapse aPPR 1.56 (95% CI =1.35 to 1.79). Children of mothers with depression were also more likely to report low first-time treatment aPPR 1.58 (95% CI = 0.99 to 2.54), continued treatment aPPR 1.86 (95% CI =151 to 2.78) post-treatment aPPR 1.34 (95% CI = 1.19 to 1.50). and relapse aPPR 1.56 (95% CI = 126 to 1.931. Girls had a higher prevalence of mental and somatic health complaints and more often reported low SAH compared to boys.ConclusionTreatment of maternal depression was associated with higher prevalence of daily health complaints and low SAH in the offspring at age 11 years. The association was strongest for children of mothers with continued depression or relapse.