# The prevalence of mental health-related multimorbidity during pregnancy: a systematic review and meta-analysis

## TL;DR

This study finds that about 1.9% of pregnant women globally have two or more mental health conditions, with significant regional differences.

## Contribution

The study provides the first global pooled prevalence estimate of mental health-related multimorbidity during pregnancy.

## Key findings

- The global pooled prevalence of mental health-related multimorbidity during pregnancy is 1.90%.
- Asia has the highest prevalence (6.82%) while Oceania has the lowest (0.36%).

## Abstract

Multimorbidity during pregnancy, defined as the co-occurrence of two or more physical or psychological conditions, is an emerging global health concern associated with adverse birth outcomes. This systematic review addresses gaps in research by determining the global pooled prevalence of mental health-related multimorbidity amongst pregnant women and identifying key populations at higher risk of this type of multimorbidity.

This study adhered to Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses (PRISMA) guidelines and was pre-registered with PROSPERO (ID: CRD420251023056). A systematic search was conducted across MEDLINE, EMBASE, and Web of Science for peer-reviewed articles from January 1, 2015 to February 10, 2025, to capture the current landscape of mental health-related multimorbidity during pregnancy. Two independent reviewers screened titles and abstracts, full texts, extracted data, and assessed study quality using Covidence software. A proportional random-effects meta-analysis was conducted to calculate the global pooled prevalence of mental health-related multimorbidity during pregnancy.

The original search across databases yielded 5,989 studies. The global pooled prevalence of mental-health related multimorbidity during pregnancy across the eligible 92 studies representing over 357 million pregnant women was 1.90% (95% CI 1.73%-2.07%). The subgroup analysis by geographic region revealed that the prevalence estimate was lowest for Oceania at 0.36% (95% CI: 0.34%-0.37%) while it was the highest for Asia at 6.82% (95% CI: 5.37%-8.43%).

Mental health-related multimorbidity during pregnancy is an under-researched issue in global health. Pregnant women would benefit from further studies, development of relevant policy, and greater awareness amongst public health and medical professionals to address needs.

The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1186/s12889-026-26545-8.