Pregnant blacks 50 pcnt more likely to be depressed if 3 ng less vitamin D

Vitamin D Nutritional Status and Antenatal Depressive Symptoms in African American Women

Journal of Women's Health. Online Ahead of Print: July 23, 2012

Andrea E. Cassidy-Bushrow, Ph.D. acassid1@hfhs.org, M.P.H.,1 Rosalind M. Peters, Ph.D., R.N., FAAN,2 Dayna A. Johnson, M.P.H., M.S.W., M.S.,1 Jia Li, Ph.D.,1 and D. Sudhaker Rao, MBBS3

1 Department of Public Health Sciences, Henry Ford Hospital, Detroit, Michigan.

2 College of Nursing, Wayne State University, Detroit, Michigan.

3 Bone & Mineral Research Laboratory, Henry Ford Hospital, Detroit, Michigan.

Background: Vitamin D deficiency is associated with depression; however, no studies have examined the relationship of vitamin D and antenatal depression. Antenatal depression increases the risk of adverse birth outcomes and poorer postpartum maternal and infant health. African American women are at increased risk for vitamin D deficiency and antenatal depression. Thus, we examined if early pregnancy vitamin D nutrition (VDN) was associated with antenatal depressive symptoms among African American women in the second trimester of pregnancy.

Methods: Women (n=178) were recruited from obstetrics clinics of a large health system. VDN was assessed by serum 25-hydroxyvitamin D (25-OHD).

Depression symptoms were measured with the Center for Epidemiological Studies Depression (CES-D) scale;

CES-D?16 equates with criteria for clinical depression .

Logistic regression was used to examine the association of log-transformed 25-OHD and elevated depression symptoms (CES-D?16).

Results: Mean 25-OHD was 13.4±8.4?ng/mL; most women (82.6%, n=147) were vitamin D inadequate or deficient (25-OHD<20?ng/mL).

Mean CES-D was 15.2±10.7, and 74 (41.6%) women had a CES-D?16, suggestive of clinical depression.

A significant inverse relationship was found between log (25-OHD) and CES-D?16 (odds ratio [OR] 0.54 , 95% confidence interval [CI] 0.29-0.99, p=0.046).

For every 1-unit increase in log (25-OHD) (corresponding to 2.72?ng/mL increase in 25-OHD), the odds of CES-D?16 decreased by 46%.

Conclusions: African American women with lower VDN exhibit increased depressive symptoms.

Research on vitamin D supplementation for reducing antenatal depressive symptoms is needed.

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Summary by VitaminDWiki

1. Fact: Depresion is associated with low levels of vitamin D

2. Fact: Dark skin women have lower vitamin D than those with white skins

3. Fact: Pregnancy decreases vitamin D

• 1+2+3 = The direction of the results of this study

• Note: Without supplementation vitamin D levels drop in early pregnancy and remain low for up to a year after birth,

See also VitaminDWiki

• Depression category listing with many associated searches

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• Dark skin births are much riskier due to lack of vitamin D

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