Evidence Hub

Association of Postpartum Temperature Exposure with Postpartum Depression: A Retrospective Cohort Study in Southern California

Yi Sun, Kathryne S. Headon, Wajeeha Umer, Anqi Jiao, Jeff M. Slezak, Chantal C. Avila, Vicki Y Chiu, David A. Sacks et al.

Environmental Health Perspectives, 2024

13 citations

Abstract

Background: Postpartum depression (PPD) has been associated with biological, emotional, social, and environmental factors. However, evidence regarding the effect of temperature on PPD is extremely limited. Objectives: We aimed to examine the associations between postpartum temperature exposure and PPD. Methods: We conducted a retrospective cohort study using data from Kaiser Permanente Southern California electronic health records from 1 January 2008 through 31 December 2018. PPD was first assessed using the Edinburgh Postnatal Depression Scale (score ≥10) during the first year of the postpartum period and further identified by using both diagnostic codes and prescription medications. Historical daily ambient temperatures were obtained from the 4-km resolution gridMET dataset (https://www.climatologylab.org/gridmet.html) and linked to participants’ residential addresses at delivery. Postpartum temperature exposures were measured by calculating various temperature metrics during the period from delivery to PPD diagnosis date. A time-to-event approach with a discrete-time logistic regression was applied to estimate the association between temperature exposure and time to PPD. Effect modification by maternal characteristics and other environmental factors was examined. Results: There were 46,114 (10.73%) PPD cases among 429,839 pregnancies (mean±standard deviation age =30.22±5.75 y). Increased PPD risks were positively associated with exposure to higher mean temperature…

How strong is the evidence?

Evidence Hub reads this as a cohort study, done in people. Its evidence level is 3 of 5 (Moderate · trial / cohort / secondary analysis). Trials without a large randomized design, cohorts and secondary analyses give moderate evidence.

How the five levels of evidence work. The level is assigned automatically from the abstract and can be wrong, so check the paper.

Read the paper

Related studies

Go deeper in Evidence Hub

Evidence Hub adds a study data sheet (design, sample size, evidence level, key numbers), an AI summary and a chat grounded in the paper's text.

Open this study Sign up free