Maternal mental disorders up risk of paediatric infectious diseases

Mental disorders in mothers appear to increase the risk of infectious disease hospitalization in their offspring, suggests a recent study.

This retrospective cohort study included 832,290 children born between 2006 and 2016 in hospitals of Quebec, Canada. The researchers identified maternal mental disorders before and during pregnancy, as well as admissions for otitis media, pneumonia, infectious enteritis, and other infections in children before 13 years of age.

Cox proportional hazards regression was used to estimate hazard ratios (HRs) with 95 percent confidence intervals (CIs) for the association between maternal mental disorders and the risk of paediatric infectious diseases, adjusted for maternal age, comorbidity, socioeconomic disadvantage, and other confounders.

Maternal mental disorders resulted in a higher incidence of paediatric infection hospitalization compared with no disorder (66.1 vs 41.1 cases per 1,000 person-years) and correlated with increased risks of otitis media (HR, 1.38, 95 percent CI, 1.35–1.42), bronchitis (HR, 1.89, 95 percent CI, 1.68–2.12), and infectious enteritis in offspring (HR, 1.65, 95 percent CI, 1.57–1.74).

Most notably, stress and anxiety disorders (HR, 1.49, 95 percent CI, 1.46–1.53) and personality disorders (HR, 1.55, 95 percent CI, 1.49–1.61) showed a more robust correlation with the risk of paediatric infection hospitalization than other maternal mental disorders. These associations were more noticeable during the first year of life and attenuated with age.

“Women with mental disorders may benefit from psychosocial support to reduce the risk of serious infections in their children,” the researchers said.