Predictors of postpartum depression among rural women in Minia, Egypt: an epidemiological study

To study the prevalence of postpartum depression (PPD) in a certain rural area in Upper Egypt, identifying the factors that might be involved in its genesis.

The current study is a cross-sectional community-based study.

The study was conducted in El-Burgaia village, 5 km north to El-Minia city over a period of three months. Systematic random sampling was used to interview 200 female subjects, who gave birth within the last 14 months preceding interview. The Edinburgh Postnatal Depression Scale (EPDS) was applied to these females to identify the presence of PPD.

The sample size analysed was 200 females, 99 (49.5%) of them had PPD (29.5% had minor PPD and 20% had major PPD). The age of the study subjects ranged between 19 and 45 years old (mean age 29 ± 5.2 years). PPD occurred more significantly among wives of less educated husbands (P = 0.03). PPD was more common among those previously diagnosed of having depression or prescribed antidepressants (P = 0.02), in addition to those females experiencing financial problems after delivery (P = 0.0001). PPD was even more common among females having complications after delivery (P = 0.01). Using logistic regression analysis, total household income, child sleeping hours, complications after delivery and support of husband after delivery were found to be statistically associated with PPD.

PPD is relatively common among rural females of El-Minia Governorate. Certain factors in these females, in the mere gestation and delivery after which they become depressed, and in the environment in which they live in, may all come to play a part in the emergence of their psychiatric illness.