�A survey of 439 U.S. and Mexican-born Latinas seeking maternity and postnatal services at public wellness clinics in San Antonio uncovered elevated levels of depression among the more "Americanized" women, report researchers from The University of Texas School of Public Health and The University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio in the most recent online result of the Maternal and Child Health Journal.
"Americanization" or acculturation is the litigate by which immigrants espouse the life style and customs of their host country, and florida key indicators include preferred speech and lieu of birth, lead writer Marivel Davila said. Davila is a graduate pupil at the UT School of Public Health and a quantitative research analyst at the UT Health Science Center at San Antonio.
Elevated levels of depression were reported by the women born in the United States, as well as those wHO asked to conduct their interviews in English. Two non-acculturation variables were associated with elevated depression - being unmarried and being pregnant.
"Screening for clinical depression during maternity is authoritative for this population group, given Latinas' high rates of fertility rate and births to individual women, peculiarly among more acculturated U.S.- born Latinas," Davila and her colleagues wrote in the article.
According to the National Center for Health Statistics, single motherhood among Latinas in Texas exceeds the national mean. In Texas in 2005, 43 percentage of all Latina births were to single women. Nationally, the overall medium was 37 percent.
"The sample for this study was a low-income universe," Davila aforesaid. "Our conclusions may or may not be different for women in other socioeconomic status (SES) groups. Hence, more research needs to be conducted among Latinas from differing SES groups, including research centering on the role of social support and cultural values/beliefs related to vaginal birth and pregnancy among Latinas."
The women were interviewed in eight family provision clinics and six antenatal clinics of the San Antonio Metropolitan Health District (SAMHD) 'tween May and August of 2003. Of the participants, 318 were born in Mexico and 121 in the United States. They were granted the choice of conducting the interview in English or Spanish.
"The higher prevalence rate of depression in Americanized Latina women is of concern in our community as the population demographics clearly indicate a significant rate of growth of this group in their childbearing geezerhood," said Fernando A. Guerra, M.D., director of wellness for the San Antonio Metropolitan Health District. "Thus, it is important to more intelligibly understand the circumstances that affect their physical and emotional wellbeing during pregnancy so that preventive measures can be initiated. This is critical for the overall health of both the mother and small fry."
Women in the sketch were percentage of the Perinatal Depression Project for Healthy Start, an opening to put up mental health services to pregnant and postpartum women by SAMHD. They were screened for depressive symptoms using the Center for Epidemiologic Studies - Depression (CES-D) Scale, a 20-item, questionnaire intentional to gauge the level of depressive symptoms over the previous week. Women with a score of 21 or greater were classified as having idealistic depressive symptoms.
"Women wHO were US-born were significantly more likely than Mexican-born women to meet the cutoff score (21 on the CES-D scale)," the authors wrote. "Women wHO conducted their interview in English were significantly more likely to express depressive symptoms compared to women who conducted their interview in Spanish."
Davila said symptoms of depression crataegus laevigata include: emotional stress, helplessness, irritability and anger. Symptoms specific to the maternity and postnatal period can include overly intense worries about the baby, and a deficiency of involvement or fear of harming the baby.
Davila's collaborators included: Stephanie L. McFall, Ph.D., an associate professor at the UT School of Public Health San Antonio Regional Campus, and Diana Cheng, M.D., of the Maryland Department of Health and Mental Hygiene. The UT School of Public Health San Antonio Regional Campus and the UT Health Science Center in San Antonio Department of Family and Community Medicine collaborated on the study.
The study is titled "Acculturation and Depressive Symptoms Among Pregnant and Postpartum Latinas." The Perinatal Depression Project was supported by the Hogg Foundation for Mental Health.
University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston
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