Mental Health
Newborns’ congenital malformations and parents’ depression diagnosis: a matched cohort study in Japan Yuta Taniguchi* Yuta Taniguchi Masao Iwagami Yoko Hamasaki Takehiro Sugiyama Rie Masuda Takahiro Kido Mitsuki Ikeda Taeko Watanabe Nanako Tamiya
Objective: We aimed to examine the association between newborns’ congenital malformations and parents’ depression.
Methods: This retrospective cohort study used the JMDC Claims Database, a medical claims database from Japanese health insurance associations for company employees and their dependent families, containing about 17 million individuals. We identified 7,010 mothers and 19,521 fathers of newborns with congenital malformations born between January 2007 and March 2023 (exposed group) and matched them 1:4 with controls (28,040 mothers and 78,084 fathers) whose children did not have congenital malformations. We excluded parents with a history of depression before pregnancy. Congenital malformations were defined by the ICD-10 codes of Q00–Q99 (congenital malformations, deformations and chromosomal abnormalities) in the month of birth or the next month. Matching was based on parental age (±1 year) and the sex and birth year of the child. We examined the association between congenital malformations in newborns and the onset of depression diagnosis among the parents by plotting cumulative incidence curves.
Results: Of 35,050 mothers and 97,605 fathers, the median (IQR) age was 33 (30–36) for mothers and 33 (29–37) for fathers. The median follow-up was 41 (18–72) months for mothers and 39 (17–69) months for fathers, and the depression occurred in 1,714 mothers (4.9%) and 4,684 fathers (4.8%). The cumulative incidence curves (Figure) showed a higher cumulative incidence for mothers in the exposed group than in the control (1.7%, 2.9%, 4.4%, 5.5%, and 6.7% for the exposed and 1.1%, 2.1%, 3.1%, 4.2%, and 5.2% for controls at 12, 24, 36, 48, and 60 follow-up months), while it was similar for fathers (1.3%, 2.4%, 3.6%, 4.6%, and 5.6% for the exposed and 1.3%, 2.3%, 3.4%, 4.3%, and 5.3% for controls).
Conclusions: Our findings underscore the importance of support for the parents of newborns with congenital malformations, particularly mothers.
