Maternal depressive symptomatology: 16-month follow-up of infant and maternal health-related quality of life.

Purpose: The purpose of this study was to document risk factors for depressive symptoms during the postpartum period among working mothers and to determine longitudinal effects of depressive symptoms on maternal health-related quality of life and infant health and development.

Methods: Mother-infant dyads from a community-based cohort study of working mothers were recruited when infants were 4 months old and were interviewed every 4 months until infants were 16 months old. Depressive symptoms and health-related quality of life were assessed using the Center for Epidemiologic Studies Depression Scale and the Short Form-12 Health Survey, respectively.