Environmental Stressors, Anemia, and Depressive Symptoms in Pregnancy: Unpacking the Combined Risks.

ABSTRACT: Chronic exposure to structural violence and environmental hazards may disrupt stress regulation, trigger inflammation, and impair iron metabolism in women. Iron deficiency has been associated with depression, but the combined impact of environmental stressors and anemia on maternal mental health remains understudied. We analyzed associations between 28 neighborhood-level environmental stressors, hemoglobin levels, and depressive symptoms (measured by the Patient Health Questionnaire-9) during early pregnancy, using retrospective data from 1964 pregnant patients (2015-2019) at an urban health center in Chicago. Demographic and residential data were linked to environmental indicators from the Chicago Health Atlas. Factor analysis reduced the environmental variables, and multivariable regress

SUBMITTER: Pobee RA 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC12652308 | biostudies-literature | 2025 Nov

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature