Depression and thoughts of death among disadvantaged mothers: risk factors and impact on maternal and child health.

Our hypothesess were that modifiable societal risk factors would contribute to depression and thoughts of death (DTD) and that DTD would affect maternal and infant well-being. Retrospective database analysis with bivariate and multivariate statistics utilizing 3 years of data from the prospective Fragile Families and Child Wellbeing Study. Eight hundred and eighty mothers (18%) were clinically depressed; of these, 286 (33%) reported thoughts of death. DTD were significantly associated with family violence and alcohol use; a combination of DTD with family violence or maternal alcohol use markedly increased the risk of infant hospitalization (p-value < 0.001). The association of DTD with problems of violence, substance abuse, and health outcomes underscores the complex relationships among these risk factors. Routine screening for these issues should be implemented.