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[Validation of a Spanish version of the Edinburgh Postnatal Depression Scale]
J M Vega-Dienstmaier1, G Mazzotti Suárez, M Campos Sánchez
1Instituto Nacional de Salud Mental Honorio Delgado, Hideyo Noguchi, Universidad Peruana Cayetano Heredia, Peru. jvegad@amauta.rcp.net.pe
Introduction:
The objective of this study is to validate a version in Spanish of the Edinburgh Postnatal Depression Scale (EPDS) in Peruvian women with less than 1 year of delivery.
Method:
We administered the EPDS and the SCID section for diagnosis of major depression according to DSM-IV criteria to 321 women within the first year of postpartum.
Results:
We found that the optimum cut-off score of the EPDS for the studied population was 13.5. With this value the sensitivity was 84.21% and the specificity 79.47% for diagnosis of major depression. No woman with score lower than 7.5 had major depression (sensitivity and negative predictive value were 100%). The correlation coefficient between the EPDS score and the number of criterion A symptoms for major depression according to DSM-IV was 0.4478. The Cronbach's alpha coefficient was 0.7043. The items that had more predictive power for postpartum depression were those regarding worries, ability to cope, panic, cry and optimism.
Conclusions:
The version in Spanish of the EPDS performed adequately in Peruvian women.
