TY - JOUR
T1 - Maternal mental health symptoms are positively associated with child dietary diversity and meal frequency but not nutritional status in Eastern Democratic Republic of Congo
AU - Emerson, Jillian A.
AU - Caulfield, Laura E.
AU - Musafiri Kishimata, Espoir
AU - Nzanzu, Jean Pierre
AU - Doocy, Shannon
N1 - Funding Information:
Acknowledgements: The authors would like to thank the staff of the Adventist Development and Relief Agency (ADRA), in particular Jenga Jamaa II Chief of Party Joseph Menakuntuala, for their support for this research and are grateful to the mothers who participanted. Financial support : The parent study was funded by ADRA. This funding was made available through a USAID Office of Food for Peace Cooperative Agreement (AID-FFP-A-11-00006). Jillian Emerson received support from the Harry J. Prebluda Fellowship, Bacon Field Chow Memorial Fellowship and tuition support from the Human Nutrition Program in the Department of International Health, Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health. Conflict of interest: The authors have no conflicts of interest to declare. Authorship: J.A.E. designed the study, performed the analyses and led the drafting of the manuscript. L.E.C. and S.D. designed the parent study and contributed to the design of the present study and the interpretation of findings. E.M.K. and J.P.N. helped design the study and participated in data collection. All authors read and approved the final version of the manuscript. Ethics of human subject participation : The current study was conducted according to the guidelines laid down in the Declaration of Helsinki, and all procedures involving research study participants were approved by the Institutional Review Board of the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Health. Verbal informed consent was obtained from all subjects. Verbal informed consent was requested from participants at each data collection encounter for the parent study, and additional consent detailing potential risks and benefits of participation in the present study was requested prior to the maternal mental health assessment. Verbal consent was witnessed and formally recorded.
Publisher Copyright:
© The Authors 2020.
PY - 2020/7/1
Y1 - 2020/7/1
N2 - Objective: The objective was to examine the association between symptoms of maternal mental health problems and child diet and nutritional status in South Kivu, Democratic Republic of Congo.Design: Maternal depression and anxiety symptoms were measured by the Hopkins Symptom Checklist-25 (HSCL-25), and post-traumatic stress was measured by the Harvard Trauma Questionnaire (HTQ). Participants were classified as having high psychological distress if their mean item score was in the upper quartile of both measures. Dependent variables included child dietary diversity, meal frequency, height-for-age z score (HAZ), weight-for-age z score (WAZ), weight-for-height z score (WHZ), stunting and underweight. Bivariate and multivariate regression analyses were conducted.Setting: The study was nested in a larger quasi-experimental study evaluating Jenga Jamaa II, a food and nutrition assistance project in Uvira and Fizi territories.Participants: In total, 812 mother-child pairs participated. Children ranged from 2·6 to 5·6 years of age.Results: HSCL-25 (β: 0·18, P < 0·05) and HTQ (β: 0·19, P < 0·05) were statistically significantly associated with higher dietary diversity scores, and all maternal mental health measures were associated with higher meal frequency (HSCL-25: β: 0·13, P = 0·001; HTQ: β: 0·12, P = 0·001; high distress: β: 0·15, P < 0·05) and consumption of at least three meals/snacks per day (HSCL-25: OR: 2·06, HTQ: OR: 1·93, high distress: OR: 2·68, P < 0·001 for all). No significant associations were found with HAZ, WAZ, WHZ, stunting or underweight indicators.Conclusions: More severe symptoms of maternal mental health problems were positively associated with child diet, but not anthropometry indicators. More research is needed to understand the role of maternal mental health in child feeding practices in food insecure and resource-poor settings.
AB - Objective: The objective was to examine the association between symptoms of maternal mental health problems and child diet and nutritional status in South Kivu, Democratic Republic of Congo.Design: Maternal depression and anxiety symptoms were measured by the Hopkins Symptom Checklist-25 (HSCL-25), and post-traumatic stress was measured by the Harvard Trauma Questionnaire (HTQ). Participants were classified as having high psychological distress if their mean item score was in the upper quartile of both measures. Dependent variables included child dietary diversity, meal frequency, height-for-age z score (HAZ), weight-for-age z score (WAZ), weight-for-height z score (WHZ), stunting and underweight. Bivariate and multivariate regression analyses were conducted.Setting: The study was nested in a larger quasi-experimental study evaluating Jenga Jamaa II, a food and nutrition assistance project in Uvira and Fizi territories.Participants: In total, 812 mother-child pairs participated. Children ranged from 2·6 to 5·6 years of age.Results: HSCL-25 (β: 0·18, P < 0·05) and HTQ (β: 0·19, P < 0·05) were statistically significantly associated with higher dietary diversity scores, and all maternal mental health measures were associated with higher meal frequency (HSCL-25: β: 0·13, P = 0·001; HTQ: β: 0·12, P = 0·001; high distress: β: 0·15, P < 0·05) and consumption of at least three meals/snacks per day (HSCL-25: OR: 2·06, HTQ: OR: 1·93, high distress: OR: 2·68, P < 0·001 for all). No significant associations were found with HAZ, WAZ, WHZ, stunting or underweight indicators.Conclusions: More severe symptoms of maternal mental health problems were positively associated with child diet, but not anthropometry indicators. More research is needed to understand the role of maternal mental health in child feeding practices in food insecure and resource-poor settings.
KW - Infant and young child feeding
KW - Maternal depression
KW - Mental health
KW - Stunting
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U2 - 10.1017/S1368980019004087
DO - 10.1017/S1368980019004087
M3 - Article
C2 - 32285766
AN - SCOPUS:85083382565
VL - 23
SP - 1810
EP - 1819
JO - Public Health Nutrition
JF - Public Health Nutrition
SN - 1368-9800
IS - 10
ER -