Background
Perinatal mental health problems, defined as mental health problems occurring from the start of pregnancy to one year after birth, substantially affect women's and children's quality of life in low- and middle-income countries. In South Africa, despite high prevalence and documented negative impacts, most women do not receive any care.

Methods
A modelling study examined the costs of perinatal mental health problems, namely depression and anxiety, for a hypothetical cohort of women and their children in South Africa over part of their life course (10 years for women, 40 years for children). In sensitivity analysis, additional impacts of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and completed suicide were included. Data sources were published findings from cohort studies, as well as epidemiological and economic data from South Africa. Data from international studies were considered where no data from South Africa were available.

Results
Lifetime costs of perinatal depression and anxiety in South Africa amount to USD 2.8 billion per annual cohort of births. If the impacts of PTSD and suicide are included, costs increase to USD 2.9 billion. This includes costs linked to losses in quality of life (USD 1.8 billion), losses in income (USD 1.1 billion) and public sector costs (USD 3.5 million).

Conclusions
Whilst important progress has been made in South Africa with regards to mental health policies and interventions that include assessment and management of perinatal mental health problems, substantial underinvestment prevents progress. Findings from this study strengthen the economic case for investing in perinatal mental health care.

This article was written by Annette Bauer London School of Economics and Political Science LSE, Care Policy and Evaluation Centre, Emily Garman Department of Psychiatry and Mental Health, Alan J Flisher Centre for Public Mental Health, University of Cape Town, Donela Besada Health Systems Unit, South African Medical Research Council, Sally Field Department of Psychiatry and Mental Health, Perinatal Mental Health Project, Alan J Flisher Centre for Public Mental Health, University of Cape Town, Martin Knapp London School of Economics and Political Science LSE, Care Policy and Evaluation Centre, and Simone Honikman Department of Psychiatry and Mental Health, Perinatal Mental Health Project, Alan J Flisher Centre for Public Mental Health, University of Cape Town

Author for correspondence: Annette Bauer, E-mail: a.bauer@lse.ac.uk

This is an Open Access article, distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution license, which permits unrestricted re use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.

Voice by voicemaker.in

This was produced by Brandon Casturo

Bauer, A., Garman, E., Besada, D., Field, S., Knapp, M., & Honikman, S. 2022. Costs of common perinatal mental health problems in South Africa. Global Mental Health, 1 10. doi:10.1017/gmh.2022.48

https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/global-mental-health/article/costs-of-common-perinatal-mental-health-problems-in-south-africa/D6A4205A3E445261C0559864E4F40D7E