Association between circulating concentrations of vitamin D and risk of antenatal, postnatal depression: a meta-analysis

Background: Previous studies showed consistent results for associations between circulating concentrations of vitamin D and risk of antenatal, postnatal depression. Methods: Articles published in English before November 2020 were searched in databases as follows: PubMed, EMBASE, Web of Science, Medline, Google Scholar and Cochrane. These articles explored associations between circulating concentrations of vitamin D and risk of antenatal, postnatal depression. The present meta-analysis was conducted using STATA 12.0 software. Odds ratios (ORs) and 95% confidence intervals (CIs) extracted from included studies were computed using a random effects model or a fixed effects model according to heterogeneities between included studies. Q test and I2 were used to explore heterogeneities between included studies. Results: 7 cohort studies (including 1567 depression cases and 5254 controls) and 3 case-control studies (including 995 depression cases and 1265 controls) were included in the present study. The study showed that low circulating levels of 25-hydroxy (OH) vitamin D is significantly associated with a higher risk of antenatal and postnatal depression (OR = 1.02, 95% CI 1.01 to 1.04, [I.sup.2] = 90.7%, p < 0.001). Conclusion: Our results have shown that the low level of vitamin D may be an adverse factor of antenatal and postnatal depression. Keywords: antenatal depression; meta-analysis; postnatal depression; vitamin D; 25-hydroxyvitamin D.