Measurement of antepartum depressive symptoms during high-risk pregnancy

Judith A Maloni1, Seunghee Park, Mary K Anthony

  • 1Frances Payne Bolton School of Nursing, Case Western Reserve University, 10900 Euclid Avenue, Cleveland, OH 44109-4904, USA.

This methodological study was designed to replicate three previous studies of depressive symptoms, compare assessment of antepartum depressive symptoms among high-risk pregnant women using three standardized instruments, and evaluate the psychometric properties of the instruments. The sample consisted of 89 high-risk pregnant women treated with bed rest, of whom 37 remained hospitalized at 4 weeks. Depressive symptoms were measured by the Multiple Affect Adjective Checklist Revised (MAACL-R) Dysphoria construct, the Profile of Mood States (POMS) Depression scale, and the Center for Epidemiologic Studies Depression Scale (CES-D) across antepartum hospitalization. Internal consistency, test-retest reliability, and convergent validity were high. Depressive symptoms were high on admission as measured by all three instruments and significantly decreased across time when measured by the MAACL-R and POMS.

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