Evaluation of the risk of postpartum depression in pregnant women under obstetric care in a University Hospital in Córdoba, Argentina (2023)

Abstract

Mental disorders affecting women during pregnancy and puerperium are underdiagnosed and undertreated. Among them, postpartum depression (PPD) stands out for its high prevalence, a condition that affects both maternal health and mother-baby interaction, conditioning psychopathological vulnerability throughout the infant's life. The aim of this study was to identify the presence of risk factors for PPD in pregnant women under obstetric care at the Maternity and Neonatology University Hospital (UNC).

The research design was observational, descriptive, correlational and longitudinal. The sample consisted of 91 patients from the Obstetrics Service, between August 2022 and July 2023. The type of sampling was deliberate according to eligibility criteria verified with the institutional medical record. The informed consent process was carried out with the participants, who signed a form previously approved by the hospital's Institutional Health Research Ethics Committee (CIEIS). The Postpartum Depression Predictors Inventory - Revised Version - (PDPI-R) was administered to all the pregnant women and the Edinburgh Postpartum Depression Scale (EPDS) to 30 of them in the fourth postpartum week. An analysis was performed with the Statistical Package for Social Sciences, determining frequency distribution and T-test.

57% of the pregnant women presented PDPI-R scores corresponding to high risk for PPD, with a mean of 9.71 points, higher than the cut-off point (7 points). The most frequent risk factors were: prenatal anxiety (84%), unplanned pregnancy (58%) and history of maternal depression (51%). In the postnatal evaluation, half of the cases evaluated presented indicators of depression (score ≥ 10). In the correlation between PDPI-R (prenatal) and EPDS (postnatal) scores it was observed that those cases with puerperal depressive indicators had registered risk factors during gestation (p= 0.09, borderline).

The identification of prenatal risk factors such as anxiety in the pregnant woman, unplanned pregnancy and personal history of depression, allow the detection of cases of greater vulnerability to PPD and the implementation of timely preventive measures.