Mental health symptoms and their relations with dietary diversity and nutritional status among mothers of young children in eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo

Table 2 Maternal Mental Health, Dietary Diversity, and Nutritional Status Descriptive Statistics

		Mean (SD) or N (%)
Maternal Mental Health (n = 828)
HSCL-25^a		2.3 (0.6)
HTQ^b		2.1 (0.6)
High Distress^c		142 (17.2)
Maternal Nutritional Status (n = 782)
Weight (kg)^d
Survey 1		50.9 (8.06)
Survey 2		49.5 (7.7)
Average, Both Surveys		50.3 (7.6)
Height (m)		1.5 (0.1)
BMI (kg/m²)^d		21.8 (2.8)
MUAC (cm) (Pregnant participants)		25.2 (2.7)
Underweight^e		86 (11.0)
Maternal Diet (n = 804)
Dietary Diversity Score
Survey 1		2.5 (1.2)
Survey 2		2.8 (1.1)
Average, Both Surveys		2.6 (1.0)

^a24 items from the Hopkins Symptom Checklist-25 measuring depression and anxiety symptoms, range of scale scores 1–4.
^b16 items from the Harvard Trauma Questionnaire measuring post-traumatic stress symptoms, range of scale scores 1–4.
^cParticipants with mean item scores in the upper quartile of both measures (≥ 2.6 for the HSCL-25 and ≥ 2.5 for the HTQ).
^dAmong 634 non-pregnant participants.
^eBMI < 18 kg/m² among non-pregnant participants or MUAC < 23 cm among pregnant participants.

ISSN: 1471-2458