Table 1.

Methodological quality assessment of articles included in the systematic review.

Publication (Author, year, country)	Title	Periodic	Design	Risk of bias §				Quality
				1	2	3	4
Oberlander et al., 2008 – Canada [26]	Prenatal exposure to maternal depression, neonatal methylation of human glucocorticoid receptor gene (NR3C1) and infant cortisol stress responses	Epigenetics	Prospective cohort	→	↓	→	↓	Moderate
Mulligan et al., 2012 – USA [27]	Methylation changes at NR3C1 in newborns associate with maternal prenatal stress exposure and newborn birth weight	Epigenetics	Cross-sectional Prospective data	↑	→	↑	↓	Low
Hompes et al., 2013 – Belgium [28]	Investigating the influence of maternal cortisol and emotional state during pregnancy on the DNA methylation status of the glucocorticoid receptor gene (NR3C1) promoter region in cord blood	Journal of Psychiatric Research	Prospective cohort	→	→	→	↓	Moderate
Non et al., 2014 – USA [44]	Genome-wide DNA methylation in neonates exposed to maternal depression, anxiety, or SSRI medication during pregnancy	Epigenetics	Cross-sectional Retrospectively collected data	→	↑	→	↓	Low
Braithwaite et al., 2015 – USA [45]	Maternal prenatal depressive symptoms predict infant NR3C1 1 F and BDNF IV DNA methylation	Epigenetics	Prospective cohort	↑	↑	↑	↓	Low
Mansell et al., 2016 – Australia [46]	Maternal mental well-being during pregnancy and glucocorticoid receptor gene promoter methylation in the neonate	Development and Psychopathology	Population-based prospective cohort	↓	→	↓	↓	Moderate
Kantake et al., 2014 – Japan [34]	Postnatal epigenetic modification of glucocorticoid receptor gene in preterm infants: a prospective cohort study	BMJ Open	Prospective cohort	↓	→	→	↓	Moderate
Giarraputo et al, 2017 – EUA [36]	Medical morbidities and DNA methylation of NR3C1 in preterm infants	Paediatric Research	Prospective cohort	→	↑	↑	↓	Low
Kantake et al., 2018 – Japan [47]	Postnatal relative adrenal insufficiency results in methylation of the glucocorticoid receptor gene in preterm infants: a retrospective cohort study	Clinical Epigenetics	Retrospective cohort	→	↓	↓	↓	Moderate
Burris et al., 2013 – USA [48]	Association between birth weight and DNA methylation of IGF2, glucocorticoid receptor and repetitive elements LINE-1 and Alu	Epigenomics	Prospective cohort	→	↓	↑	↓	Moderate

§ Risk of bias: 1-Selection; 2- Information; 3- Confounding; 4- Specification; ↑High →Moderate ↓Low