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Abstract

Background
Perinatal anxiety is a significant public health issue with potential adverse outcomes for both mothers and their babies. This study provides a comprehensive analysis of the costs associated with health service use for women with and without perinatal anxiety in the UK National Health Service (NHS) at six and twelve months postpartum. This research is part of the MAP Alliance Study—a large programme of research on perinatal anxiety.

Methods
A cost of illness (COI) analysis was performed using a retrospective approach in which recorded data of self-reported health resource use was analysed. The COI analysis identified the different components of costs and the size of the contribution of each health resource and quantified the direct costs incurred by the NHS due to perinatal anxiety.

Results
Results found that women experiencing perinatal anxiety use healthcare services more frequently and incur higher healthcare costs compared to those without. At six months postpartum, the mean total healthcare cost per woman with perinatal anxiety was £1174 (95% CI: 1080.67, 1263.05) compared with £1046 (95% CI: 975.16, 1123.83) for women without. At twelve months postpartum, the mean total healthcare cost per woman with perinatal anxiety was £414 (95% CI: 347.76, 488.87) compared with £267 (95% CI: 226.06, 314.81) for women without. However, this cost difference between the two groups was not statistically significant (-£14; 95% CI: -161.88, 135.65, p = 0.808).

Conclusion
These findings underscore the economic impact of perinatal anxiety on healthcare systems and highlight the need for targeted interventions to improve care pathways for affected women. The results of this analysis have significant implications for public health policy, emphasising the importance of optimising perinatal mental health care pathways to reduce long-term costs and improve outcomes for women.

Publication Type:	Article
Additional Information:	This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License, which permits use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons licence, and indicate if changes were made. The images or other third party material in this article are included in the article’s Creative Commons licence, unless indicated otherwise in a credit line to the material. If material is not included in the article’s Creative Commons licence and your intended use is not permitted by statutory regulation or exceeds the permitted use, you will need to obtain permission directly from the copyright holder. To view a copy of this licence, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/.
Publisher Keywords:	Birth, Cost of illness, Health economics, Health services, Healthcare resource use, Perinatal anxiety, Pregnancy, Women
Subjects:	R Medicine > RA Public aspects of medicine > RA0421 Public health. Hygiene. Preventive Medicine R Medicine > RG Gynecology and obstetrics
Departments:	School of Health & Medical Sciences School of Health & Medical Sciences > Department of Nursing & Midwifery
SWORD Depositor:	Symplectic Administrator

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