Perinatal Depression and Infant Mortality

Perinatal depression is a significant public health issue in New Jersey and in the United States, with wide disparities by race and socioeconomic status. Evidence shows that perinatal depression adversely affects a range of children’s health and developmental outcomes, yet little is known about the relationship between perinatal depression and infant mortality, partly because suitable data are rare. New Jersey’s policy of universal screening for perinatal depression and the iPHD initiative provide a unique opportunity to examine the relationship between perinatal depression and infant mortality at the population level. Building on our previous iPHD research recently published on perinatal depressionand infant’s emergency department use, we will merge NJ birth, mortality, and hospital discharge datato explore the relationship between severity of perinatal depressive symptoms and infant mortality. We will also explore how the association varies by maternal and infant characteristics to further understand whether, among the population affected by perinatal depression, some groups are more susceptible to poor infant outcomes. Finally, we will explore differences in infant cause of death by depression status. This research will provide crucial data for informing policies in New Jersey that aim to optimize health systems to best provide support for perinatal people affected by depression, improve maternal and infant health, and reduce disparities and inequities in these outcomes.