Peer-reviewed article
Maternal mental health and child well-being in Nigeria: A systematic review
Dung Ezekiel Jidong, Nusrat Husain, Tarela Juliet Ike, Maisha Murshed, Juliet Yop Pwajok et al. ·
Summary
Written by AI, not yet AICS's view · claude-sonnet-5-5This systematic review looked at studies from 1999 to 2019 on maternal mental health problems in Nigeria and how they relate to child growth and well-being. Thirty-four studies met the inclusion criteria and were synthesised thematically. Five themes emerged: marital difficulties, the mother's relationship status, the child's gender, mode of delivery, and child growth and development. The authors found very little research on how specific maternal mental health problems affect child physical growth and cognitive development. They recommend culturally appropriate, cost-effective randomised controlled trials of psychological interventions for distressed mothers.
Key points
- Five databases were searched for articles published between 1999 and 2019.
- Thirty-four studies met the inclusion criteria and were qualitatively synthesised.
- Five themes emerged: marital difficulties, mother's relationship status, child's gender, mode of child delivery, and child growth and development.
- There is a significant paucity of literature on the impact of specific maternal mental health problems on child physical growth and cognitive development.
- The authors recommend culturally appropriate, evidence-based psychological interventions and randomised controlled trials for distressed mothers with children.
Limitations
The abstract gives no figures or effect sizes and does not say how strong or consistent the included studies were. It cannot tell us which specific maternal mental health problems affect child growth, or whether any intervention works.
Abstract
Maternal mental health distress has a disease burden of severe adverse effects for both mother and child. This review identified maternal mental health concerns, their impact on child growth and the current practice of maternal healthcare for both mothers and their children in Nigeria. The Population, phenomenon of Interest and Context (PICo) model was adopted to formulate the review strategy, and five databases were searched for published articles between 1999 and 2019. Databases include Scopus, PubMed, ProQuest, Applied Social Science Index and Abstracts and Web of Science. Boolean operators (AND/OR/NOT) helped to ensure rigorous use of search terms which include 'maternal', 'pre/peri/postnatal', 'mental health', 'mental illness', 'disorders', 'intervention,' 'Nigeria', 'child', 'infant growth', and 'wellbeing'. Thirty-four studies met the inclusion criteria, and extracted data were qualitatively synthesised and analysed thematically. Five themes emerged. These include (i) marital difficulties, (ii) relationship status of the mother, (iii) child's gender, (iv) mode of child delivery and (v) child growth and development. The review showed a significant paucity of literature on the impact of specific maternal mental health problems on child physical growth and cognitive development. We concluded that culturally appropriate and evidence-based psychological interventions for maternal mental health problems would benefit Nigerian indigenous mothers. Therefore, the study recommends randomised controlled trials that are culturally appropriate and cost-effective for distressed mothers with children.