Dr. Sutherland and her collaborators noted that fewer women in their cohort had postpartum depression than the national average of 19%. They may have missed some patients who would later develop depression since the screening occurred at the first postpartum visit; also, “it is possible that women deeply affected by [postpartum depression] may have been lost to follow-up,” they wrote.
Participants had a mean age of about 26 years, and body mass index was slightly higher for those with anemia than without (mean, 32.2 vs 31.2 kg/m2; P = .025).
Postpartum depression was not associated with marital status, substance use, ethnicity, parity, or the occurrence of postpartum hemorrhage, in the investigators’ analysis.
Dr. Sutherland said that, in their analysis, she and her coinvestigators did not find an association between degree of anemia and the likelihood, or severity, of postpartum depression. However, they did find that anemia of any degree in the immediate peripartum period was most strongly associated with postpartum depression.