New mental health diagnoses in parents of infants admitted to a neonatal intensive care unit—a retrospective review of the Military Health System database

Objective Studies suggest that parents of NICU infants are at increased risk of mental health disorders. We sought to characterize this risk using a large database. Study design The Military Health System was used to retrospectively link records between parents and infants admitted to a NICU over 5 years and were matched to similar families without NICU exposure. The total study population included 35,012 infants. Logistic regression was used to estimate the association between NICU exposure and parental mental health diagnoses within 5 years of infant birth. Results Maternal NICU exposure was associated with incident diagnoses of depression (OR: 1.18–1.27, p