A brand new research printed in JAMA Inner Medication reveals a troubling decline in psychological well being amongst moms in the US.
Researchers at Columbia College and the College of Michigan discovered the share of moms reporting “excellent” psychological well being dropped sharply from 2016 to 2023.
Utilizing information from practically 200,000 moms within the Nationwide Survey of Kids’s Well being, a nationally consultant survey of households with kids, researchers tracked well being traits amongst ladies with kids below 18 years outdated. A lot of the moms have been over 30.
Notable findings included a drop within the share of moms reporting “excellent” psychological well being, from 38 p.c in 2016 to 26 p.c in 2023. Stories of “excellent” bodily well being additionally declined, from 28 p.c to 24 p.c.
Moreover, the variety of moms score their psychological well being as “fair/poor” elevated from 5.5 p.c to 9 p.c.
“Although high rates of maternal morbidity and mortality have been well documented, national data on the health status of mothers beyond pregnancy and the first year postpartum is lacking,” stated Jamie Daw, an assistant professor of well being coverage and administration at Columbia’s Mailman College of Public Well being.
The research revealed that the decline in psychological well being began earlier than the COVID-19 pandemic and was noticed throughout practically each socioeconomic subgroup examined.
Researchers warned the influence extends past the moms themselves, citing hyperlinks between poor parental psychological well being and elevated dangers of developmental delays, behavioral points and different challenges amongst kids.
