Parents who took simultaneous parental leave were more likely to seek postpartum mental health care, with mothers showing increased antidepressant use and fathers having more substance use disorder-related visits, according to a recent study.
Researchers investigated the association between simultaneous parental leave and postpartum mental health care utilization in Sweden. The study included 207,283 parental dyads and assessed the impact of taking parental leave simultaneously within the first postpartum year on mental health outcomes.
In the first postpartum year, 26% (53,941) of parental dyads utilized simultaneous parental leave, while 74% (153,342) did not.
The findings, published in JAMA Network Open, revealed that mothers who took simultaneous parental leave were more likely to receive antidepressant prescriptions (odds ratio [OR], 1.07; 95% confidence interval [CI], 1.02-1.11), while fathers exhibited increased outpatient visits related to SUD (OR, 1.10; 95% CI, 1.02-1.20). Longer use of simultaneous leave (more than 15 days) was associated with a greater likelihood of mental health care utilization for both parents, whereas shorter leave (up to 15 days) was primarily linked to antidepressant prescriptions for mothers.
Earlier simultaneous leave, particularly in the first 6 months postpartum, was associated with increased mental health care uptake primarily for mothers.
Full disclosures can be found in the published study.