Maternal depression and non-specific health complaints in the offspring: a Danish cohort study

Abstract Background: Maternal depression has been linked to adverse outcome in the offspring. Existing literature is mainly based on parental reports, which can be fallible when the parent suffers from depression. Aim: The aim of this study was to explore if maternal depression was associated with daily health complaints and low self-assessed health (SAH) in the offspring. Design and setting: Participants were 45,727 children from the Danish National Birth Cohort. Maternal depression was categorised into: no depression, first-time treatment, continued treatment, post treatment and relapse. Methods: Binomial regression was used to estimate the adjusted prevalence proportion ratio (aPPR) of frequent health complaints and low SAH in children of depressed mothers compared to children of non-depressed mothers. Results: The prevalence of any frequent health complaint was 10.8%, frequent somatic complaints was 3.2%, frequent mental complaints 8.7%, both frequent mental and somatic complaints 1.2%, and low SAH 5.3%. Children of mothers with depression (any category) were more likely to report a frequent health complaint; first-time treatment: aPPR=1.35 (95% CI: 0.96-1.85), continued treatment: aPPR=1.59 (1.37-1.85), post treatment: aPPR=1.30 (1.20-1.41), and relapse: aPPR=1.56 (1.35-1.79). Children of mothers with depression were also more likely to report low SAH; first-time treatment: aPPR=1.58 (0.99-2.54), continued treatment: aPPR=1.86 (1.51-2.28), post treatment: aPPR=1.34 (1.19-1.50), and relapse: aPPR=1.56 (1.26-1.93). Conclusions: Treatment of maternal depression was associated with higher prevalence of frequent health complaints and low SAH in the offspring at age 11 years. The association was strongest for children of mothers with continued depression or relapse.