Sleep quality and perinatal depression in pregnant women treated in a primary care centre in Lima, Peru

Objective

The aim is to evaluate the association between sleep quality and perinatal depression in pregnant women between the 12th week of gestation and the 36th week of gestation in a maternity and child centre in Lima.

Methods

Analytical cross-sectional study in pregnant women cared for in a primary care centre between August and December 2019. The data were collected through a self-administered survey. The Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index (PSQI) was used to assess sleep quality. The evaluation of perinatal depression was performed with the Edinburgh Postnatal Depression Scale (EPDS). For the multivariate analysis, Poisson regression with robust variances was used to calculate the crude and adjusted prevalence ratios and their respective confidence intervals.

Results

The sample was composed of 200 participants. The median [IQR] age was 26 [22–32] years, and 111 (55.5%) pregnancies were unplanned. 52% presented a poor quality of sleep and the risk of perinatal depression was 31.5%. Poor quality of sleep was associated with a significantly higher frequency of perinatal depression (aPR = 4.8 for those with poor quality of sleep warranting medical attention, and aPR = 6.6 for those with poor quality of sleep warranting medical attention and treatment).

Conclusions

There is a possible association between poor sleep quality and perinatal depression in pregnant women between weeks 12 and 36 of gestation. Operational research should be promoted to assess whether interventions to improve sleep quality could have a positive impact on reducing perinatal depression.