Prevalence of post-traumatic stress disorder and associated predictors among mothers of preterm infants in Western Kenya: a cross-sectional study

Introduction: mothers of preterm infants are exposed to stress leading to post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). Preterm births have increased lately with World Health Organization (WHO) reporting an estimated prevalence of up to 5-18% and Kenya reporting a prevalence of 18.3%. The current study sought to determine the prevalence of PTSD and its associated predictors among mothers with preterm infants. Methods: this was a hospital-based cross-sectional study among 182 mothers with preterm babies admitted in neonatal care units (NCUs) of two referral hospitals. A simple random sampling technique was used to select participants and data was collected using a semi-structured pretested questionnaire and an Impact of events scale-revised (IES-R). Analysis was done using STATA 15 and a significance level set at P & LE; 0.05 and 95% confidence interval. Results: the majority of the respondents 67 (36.8%) were aged between 18-22 years and only 34 (18.7%) were above 34 years. Most of the respondents had attained secondary and tertiary level education at 86 (47.3%) and 51 (28.0%) respectively. Prevalence of PTSD was 78.6% at a confidence interval of 95% CI: 0.72-0.84. Mothers who had a previous preterm birth were 0.09 less likely to develop PTSD {AOR=0.09, 95% CI: 0.01-0.80, p=0.023} while those who underwent cesarean section were 11.1 times more likely to develop PTSD {AOR=11.1, 95% CI:1.1-114.8, p=0.043}. Conclusion: the prevalence of PTSD was 78.6%. Although mothers of preterm infants experience stress, the associated predictors included; cesarean section birth, having had a preterm birth before and staying in fair housing conditions.