Publication date: Jul 17, 2026
Pregnant women with prenatal depression could have distinctly heterogeneous constellations of symptoms. Classifying prenatal depressive symptoms into different subtypes using a person-centered approach and investigating their associated factors are beneficial for personalized assessment and management of the disorder. However, relevant evidence is still lacking. A cross-sectional study was conducted in the obstetrics outpatient clinics of two university-affiliated, governmental, tertiary hospitals in Xi’an City, Northwestern China. A total of 1020 pregnant women were included in the study and administered with a researcher-designed sociodemographic, health-related and pregnancy-related information sheet, the 8-item Patient Health Questionnaire, the five-level EuroQol five-dimension questionnaire, the Generalized Anxiety Disorder-7 and the Pregnancy Stress Rating Scale. Latent profile analysis was used to classify prenatal depressive symptoms into different subtypes, while a multivariate binomial logistic regression model was employed to identify the associated factors of the different subtypes. Health-related quality of life, prenatal anxiety and stress were compared across subtypes of prenatal depressive symptoms. Prenatal depressive symptoms were classified into three subtypes, including ‘minimal-to-mild symptoms’ (58. 6%), ‘mild-to-moderate psychosomatic symptoms’ (17. 1%) and ‘mild-to-moderate melancholic symptoms’ (24. 3%). Multiple sociodemographic, health-related and pregnancy-related factors were associated with the subtypes of prenatal depressive symptoms. Moreover, health-related quality of life, prenatal anxiety and stress differed significantly across subtypes of prenatal depressive symptoms. Pregnant women with depressive symptoms could be classified into distinct subgroups characterized by heterogeneous clinical manifestations. With further validation, investigating the relevant associated factors may become a useful addition to routine prenatal healthcare, facilitating the identification of women at risk of different subtypes and the implementation of early individualized management.
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| Concepts | Keywords |
|---|---|
| Depressive symptoms | |
| Latent profile analysis | |
| Prenatal |