Trust and well-being of postpartum women during the COVID-19 crisis: Depression and fear of COVID-19

SSM: Population Health

Kanami Tsuno¹  Takahiro Tabuchi²  Midori Matsushima³  Ai Hori⁴  Sumiyo Okawa⁵ 

[1] Corresponding author. 1-1-1 Tennodai , Tsukuba Ibaraki 305-8577, Japan.;Department of Global Public Health, University of Tsukuba, Ibaraki, Japan;Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences/R&D Center for Smart Wellness City Policies, University of Tsukuba, Ibaraki, Japan;Institute for Global Health Policy Research, Bureau of International Health Cooperation, National Center for Global Health and Medicine, Japan;School of Health Innovation, Kanagawa University of Human Services, Kanagawa, Japan;

关键词: Generalised trust;    Political trust;    EPDS;    FCV-19S;    COVID-19;    Japan;   

DOI  :  

来源: DOAJ

【 摘 要 】

During crisis, trust has been found to have a buffering effect in the prevention of the deterioration of mental well-being, as trust is considered to reflect the individual's capability to gain social resources including both formal and informal support. Additionally, during the COVID-19 pandemic, political trust has been found to reduce anxiety. Taking these findings into account, this study explores the association of generalised and political trust with mental well-being on current postpartum women who were particularly at risk due to a decline in social support leaving them an increased burden of caring newborns during the pandemic. We conducted a crosssectional survey in October 2020 in Japan (n=558). Depressive symptoms (above the cutoff of the Edinburgh Postnatal Depression Scale (EPDS)) and Fear of Coronavirus-19 Scale (FCV–19S) scores were used as mental well-being indicators. Generalised and political trust were captured by binary variables. Results of regression analyses, in which covariates were fully adjusted, showed that higher generalised trust had a statistically significant association with lower possibility of depressive symptoms and a lower FCV-19S score, while political trust was not significantly associated with either indicator. For further understanding, we divided respondents into two groups; women living in cities where higher COVID-19 cases were reported and women living in areas with lower COVID-19 cases, to test whether the role of trust differs depending on the infection spread status. It was found that a higher generalised trust was significantly associated with a lower probability of having depressive symptoms in the areas with lower COVID-19 cases. However, statistical significance was not observed in the areas with high COVID-19 cases. This highlighted that even postpartum women who were normally capable of receiving formal and informal social support need to be taken care of in the current situation.

【 授权许可】

Unknown