Maternal common mental disorders and associated factors: a cross-sectional study in an urban slum area of Dhaka, Bangladesh

Background: Poor maternal mental health has a negative impact on child growth and development. The objective of the study was to find out the associated factors of maternal common mental disorders (CMD) in an urban slum area of Bangladesh. Methods: This cross-sectional study was carried out from September to November 2013 among conveniently selected 264 mothers having under-five children at Kamrangirchar area of Dhaka. A structured questionnaire based on Self-Reporting Questionnaire-20 (SRQ-20) was used for data collection where a cut-off of 7 was considered to ascertain CMD. Results: Majority of the mothers were housewives (89.8%), educated up to primary level (40.9%) and lived in nuclear families (83.0%) with low socioeconomic status (64.4%) and moderate household food insecurity (57.5%). The prevalence of maternal CMD was 46.2%. In bivariate analysis, the associated factors of CMD were higher maternal age (p = 0.043), lower educational qualification (p = 0.015), low socioeconomic status (p = 0.004), household food insecurity (p < 0.001), maternal undernutrition (p = 0.001), child wasting (p = 0.005) and child underweight (p < 0.001). Household food insecurity (p < 0.001) and maternal undernutrition (p = 0.004) were identified as associated factors of maternal CMD after controlling for socio-demographic variables. There were about 5 times and 12 times increased odds of having maternal CMD in moderately (adjusted OR = 4.8, 95% CI 2.0-11.7) and severely food insecure household (adjusted OR = 11.6, 95% CI 3.5-38.1), respectively, than food secure one. Underweight mothers had 2.5 times increased odds of experiencing CMD as compared with mothers who were not underweight (adjusted OR = 2.6, 95% CI 1.4-5.0). Conclusion: The prevalence of maternal CMD was relatively higher than other developing countries studied so far. Household food insecurity and maternal under-nutrition were the associated factors of maternal CMD. Therefore, interventions to improve household food security and maternal nutrition can improve maternal CMD and thus make useful contributions to child growth and development.