Objective  To investigate the relationship between antenatal depression symptoms and gestational diabetes mellitus (GMD) and whether antenatal depression symptoms is a risk factor for the incidence of GMD.

  Methods  We enrolled 1 554 pregnant women taking their first prenatal examination (before 20-week of the gestation) at Guangdong Provincial Women and Children Hospital between January and September 2016. For all the participants, depressive symptoms during early pregnancy were assessed with the 10-item Edinburgh Postnatal Depression Scale (EPDS) and a 75-g oral glucose tolerance test (OGTT) was conducted to diagnose GDM in a follow-up survey between 24- and 28-week of gestation. We compared the difference in the incidence of GMD between the participants with and without depressive symptoms and explored the associations of antenatal depression symptoms with GDM and influence factors of GDM using logistic regression analysis.

  Results  The incidence of GDM was 17.7% among all the participants and the incidence was unsignificantly higher among the participants with antenatal depression symptoms than among those without the symptoms (18.5% vs. 17.3%; χ² = 0.3, P = 0.57). The results of logistic regression analysis revealed that prenatal depression was not associated with GDM (odds ratio OR = 1.1, 95% confidence interval 95% CI: 0.82 – 1.43); while, age (OR = 1.7, 95% CI: 1.2 – 2.3), high pre-pregnancy body mass index (BMI) of≥24.0 kg/m² (OR = 1.7, 95% CI: 1.2 – 2.3), history of preterm delivery (OR = 2.8, 95% CI: 1.3 – 6.0), GDM history (OR = 7.6, 95% CI: 3.9 – 14.9), and family history of diabetes (OR = 2.1, 95% CI: 1.1 – 4.0) were significant risk factors of GDM.

  Conclusion  Gestational diabetes mellitus incidence is not correlated with prenatal depression symptoms but significantly influenced by age, pre-pregnancy BMI, histories of preterm delivery and GDM, and family history of diabetes.