Systematic Reviews
Copyright ©The Author(s) 2022. Published by Baishideng Publishing Group Inc. All rights reserved.
World J Psychiatry. Sep 19, 2022; 12(9): 1233-1254
Published online Sep 19, 2022. doi: 10.5498/wjp.v12.i9.1233
Mental health impact on Black, Asian and Minority Ethnic populations with preterm birth: A systematic review and meta-analysis
Gayathri Delanerolle, Yu-Tian Zeng, Peter Phiri, Thuan Phan, Nicola Tempest, Paula Busuulwa, Ashish Shetty, Vanessa Raymont, Shanaya Rathod, Jian-Qing Shi, Dharani K Hapangama
Gayathri Delanerolle, Nuffield Department of Primary Care Health Science, University of Oxford, Oxford OX3 7JX, United Kingdom
Gayathri Delanerolle, Peter Phiri, Shanaya Rathod, Research and Innovation, Southern Health NHS Foundation Trust, Southampton SO30 3JB, United Kingdom
Yu-Tian Zeng, Southern University of Science and Technology, Shenzhen 518055, Guangdong Province, China
Peter Phiri, Psychology Department, Faculty of Environmental and Life Sciences, University of Southampton, Southampton SO17 1BJ, United Kingdom
Thuan Phan, Nicola Tempest, Paula Busuulwa, Dharani K Hapangama, Department of Women's and Children's Health, University of Liverpool, Liverpool L7 8TX, United Kingdom
Nicola Tempest, Dharani K Hapangama, Gynaecology Directorate and Hewitt Centre for Reproductive Medicine, Liverpool Women's NHS Foundation, Liverpool L8 7SS, United Kingdom
Ashish Shetty, National Hospital for Neurology and Neurosurgery, University College London Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust, London W1T 4AJ, United Kingdom
Vanessa Raymont, Department of Psychiatry, University of Oxford, Oxford OX3 7JX, United Kingdom
Jian-Qing Shi, National Centre for Applied Mathematics Shenzhen, Shenzhen 518055, Guangdong Province, China
Jian-Qing Shi, Department of Statistics, Southern University of Science and Technology, Shenzhen 518055, Guangdong Province, China
Author contributions: Delanerolle G and Hapangama DK developed the systematic review protocol and embedded this within the ELEMI project’s evidence synthesis phase; Delanerolle G, Zeng Y, Phan T, Shi JQ and Hapangama DK wrote the first draft of the manuscript; Delanerolle G, Phan T, Zeng Y, Hapangama DK, Shi JQ and Phiri P shared database searches, study selection and extraction for analysis; Zeng Y, Shi JQ and Delanerolle G conducted the analysis; all authors critically appraised and commented on previous versions of the manuscript; all authors read and approved the final manuscript.
Conflict-of-interest statement: Phiri P has received research grant from Novo Nordisk, and other, educational from Queen Mary University of London, other from John Wiley & Sons, other from Otsuka, outside the submitted work. Rathod S reports other from Janssen, Lundbeck and Otsuka outside the submitted work. All other authors report no conflict of interest. The views expressed are those of the authors and not necessarily those of the NHS, the National Institute for Health Research, the Department of Health and Social Care or the Academic institutions.
PRISMA 2009 Checklist statement: The authors have read the PRISMA 2009 Checklist, and the manuscript was prepared and revised according to the PRISMA 2009 Checklist.
Open-Access: This article is an open-access article that was selected by an in-house editor and fully peer-reviewed by external reviewers. It is distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution NonCommercial (CC BY-NC 4.0) license, which permits others to distribute, remix, adapt, build upon this work non-commercially, and license their derivative works on different terms, provided the original work is properly cited and the use is non-commercial. See: https://creativecommons.org/Licenses/by-nc/4.0/
Corresponding author: Peter Phiri, BSc, PhD, RN, Academic Fellow, Director, Research and Innovation, Southern Health NHS Foundation Trust, Clinical Trials Facility, Tom Rudd Unit Moorgreen Hospital, Botley Road, West End, Southampton SO30 3JB, United Kingdom. peter.phiri@southernhealth.nhs.uk
Received: March 21, 2022
Peer-review started: March 21, 2022
First decision: May 30, 2022
Revised: June 16, 2022
Accepted: August 5, 2022
Article in press: August 5, 2022
Published online: September 19, 2022
Processing time: 182 Days and 16.4 Hours
ARTICLE HIGHLIGHTS
Research background

Preterm birth (PTB) is a complex clinical condition contributing to significant maternal morbidity and a leading cause of neonatal morbidity and mortality. Therefore, potential mental health impact of PTB on women is an important clinical and social sequel that requires further understanding.

Research motivation

Existing research primarily reports the mental health impact of women with PTB within the Caucasian population. There remains a paucity of research on the ethnic minority populations. Thus, we aimed to assess the current research gap relevant to ethnic minorities to inform future research that could aid with improving patient and clinical reported outcomes.

Research objectives

(1) We aimed to describe the prevalence of mental health conditions and/or symptoms reported by women with PTB experiences within the ethnic minorities; and (2) We also extended our study to report the commonly used methods of mental health assessments to charactertise the identified mental health conditions and/or symptoms with the pooled sample.

Research methods

A systematic methods protocol was developed, peer reviewed and published in PROSPERO (CRD42040210863). Multiple databases were used to extract relevant data for a meta-analysis. A trim and fill method was used to report publication bias in addition to an Egger’s test. I2 was used to report heterogeneity.

Research results

From a total of 3516 studies identified, we included 39 studies that met the inclusion criteria. Depression was the most commonly reported mental illness among PTB mothers in comparison to those who had a full-term pregnancy. The subgroup analysis demonstrated depression to be time-sensitive relative to the PTB. Stress and anxiety were also prevalent among PTB mothers as opposed to full-term mothers.

Research conclusions

There appears to be a mental health impact among PTB mothers from ethnic minorities. This is an important aspect to consider for maternity care services to improve the quality care provided to PTB women.

Research perspectives

Future researchers should consider inclusion of all ethnicities and races to ensure generalizability of any findings to all mothers that could truly improve maternity care services.