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Postpartum depression screening by telephone: a good alternative for public health and research

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Abstract

This study verified the reliability and validity of the Edinburg Postpartum Depression Scale (EPDS) administered by telephone interviews. In a cross-sectional study of a cohort from Brazil (BRISA), the EPDS was administered by telephone to 1,083 women within 12 months postpartum, and 257 (23.7 %) participants had an EPDS score ≥10. At 67 ± 48 days after their telephone interview, 199 (EPDS ≥10 = 96; EPDS <10 = 103) participants were interviewed face-to-face using the Structured Clinical Interview for DSM-IV (SCID) and completed the EPDS again by self-report. In 90 participants, the diagnosis of major depressive episode was confirmed by the SCID (EPDS ≥10 = 65; EPDS <10 = 25). The Cronbach’s alpha coefficient was 0.861. The Spearman’s correlation between the EPDS administered by telephone and the self-reported EPDS was 0.69 (p < 0.001). The receiver-operating characteristic (ROC) curve for the EPDS administered by telephone was 0.78 (95 % confidence interval (CI) = 0.72 to 0.84). Scores ≥10 showed a sensitivity of 72.2 %, a specificity of 71.6 %, and a positive predictive value of 67.7 %. The application of the EPDS by telephone is a suitable alternative for clinical practice and research and represents a method to optimize the diagnosis of postpartum depression.

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Acknowledgments

Financial support: Fundação de Amparo à Pesquisa do Estado de São Paulo (FAPESP). AAMS, MAB, HB, and CMDB are recipients of research fellowships from “Conselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento Científico e Tecnológico” (CNPq).

Conflict of interest

The authors certify that they have no commercial or associative interest that represents a conflict of interest in connection with the manuscript.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Neurosciences and Behavior, Ribeirão Preto Medical School, Av. dos Bandeirantes 3900, Ribeirao Preto, SP, 14048-900, Brazil

    Felipe Pinheiro de Figueiredo, Ana Paula Parada & Cristina Marta Del-Ben

  2. Department of Puericulture and Pediatrics, Ribeirão Preto Medical School, University of São Paulo, Ribeirao Preto, Brazil

    Viviane Cunha Cardoso, Marco Antônio Barbieri & Heloisa Bettiol

  3. Department of Public Health, Federal University of Maranhão, São Luís, Maranhão, Brazil

    Rosângela Fernandes Lucena Batista & Antônio Augusto Moura da Silva

  4. Department of Gynecology and Obstetrics, Ribeirão Preto Medical School, University of São Paulo, Ribeirao Preto, Brazil

    Ricardo de Carvalho Cavalli

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  1. Felipe Pinheiro de Figueiredo
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  2. Ana Paula Parada
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  3. Viviane Cunha Cardoso
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  9. Cristina Marta Del-Ben
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Correspondence to Felipe Pinheiro de Figueiredo.

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de Figueiredo, F.P., Parada, A.P., Cardoso, V.C. et al. Postpartum depression screening by telephone: a good alternative for public health and research. Arch Womens Ment Health 18, 547–553 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00737-014-0480-1

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00737-014-0480-1

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