A psychiatric epidemiological study of postpartum Chinese women

Epidemiological studies in the 1980s have suggested that depression is rare in the Chinese population and there is no postpartum depression among Chinese women. However, subsequent small-scale studies of postpartum depression in China have yielded contradictory and inconsistent findings. Furthermore, after two decades of profound socioeconomic transformation, depression may no longer be rare in the contemporary population. The authors conducted a psychiatric epidemiological study among postpartum Chinese women using rigorous methodology and a representative sample.

A total of 959 consecutive women were recruited at the antenatal clinic of a university hospital in Hong Kong. At 3 months postpartum, the prevalence and incidence rates of depression were measured with a two-phase design. The participants were first stratified by means of the 12-item General Health Questionnaire. Subsequently, all high scorers and 10% of low scorers were assessed with the nonpatient version of the Structured Clinical Interview for DSM-III-R. The 1-month and 3-month prevalence and incidence rates were estimated by using reverse weighting.

The 1-month prevalence rates for major and minor depression were 5.5% and 4.7%, respectively. At 3 months, the corresponding prevalence rates were 6.1% and 5.1%. Together, 13.5% of the participants suffered from one or more forms of psychiatric disorder in the first 3 months postpartum.

Postpartum depression is common among contemporary Chinese women. A universal postpartum depression-screening program would be useful for early detection. Our data suggest that depression may no longer be rare in the Chinese population.