Association of cord blood vitamin D at delivery with postpartum depression in Australian women.

What Was Tested

This randomized controlled trial looks at Vitamin D, K2, Magnesium and Zinc.

To determine the association between 25(OH)D at delivery and the subsequent risk of PPD at six weeks and six months postpartum in a large cohort of Australian women.

Why It Was Studied

Observational studies have implicated low serum vitamin D (25-hydroxyvitamin D (25(OH)D)) levels in the development of mood disorders.

Postpartum depression (PPD) is an important public health issue, although little is known about its association with serum 25(OH)D.

Who Took Part

The abstract describes 1040 women taking part.

By PubMed's age tags, the people studied were adults, women only.

Cord blood samples from 1040 women participating in the docosahexaenoic acid (DHA) to Optimise Maternal Infant Outcome randomised controlled trial were analysed for 25(OH)D by mass spectroscopy.

The association between standardised 25(OH)D and PPD was assessed, taking into account DHA treatment, social and demographic variables.

How the Study Was Run

The design is described as randomized.

Because people in this Vitamin D, K2, Magnesium and Zinc study were split into groups at random, differences between the groups are less likely to reflect who happened to join each one.

Maternal PPD was assessed using the Edinburgh Postnatal Depression Scale at six weeks and six months postpartum.

What Was Measured

Observational studies have implicated low serum vitamin D (25-hydroxyvitamin D (25(OH)D)) levels in the development of mood disorders.

PubMed files the paper under topics including Australia, Comorbidity, Depression, Postpartum, Fetal Blood, Gestational Age, Incidence and Maternal Age.

Author keywords: birth, cord blood, postpartum depression, pregnancy and vitamin D.

What This Means in Plain Language

The paper is a randomized study of Vitamin D, K2, Magnesium and Zinc in 1040 women.

With several hundred people or more, it is a fairly large study for this kind of research.

The abstract goes on to report its results in about 4 sentences; this page does not restate them, so read the paper for the findings and their limits.

The publication is from 2015 (The Australian & New Zealand journal of obstetrics & gynaecology), a journal based in Australia.

More context: the Vitamin D, K2, Magnesium and Zinc compound page, all human trials.