title: The correlation between postpartum depression and health status.
abstract: To investigate a purported correlation between postpartum depression and self-rated maternal general health status in a sample of mothers in Southern Brazil. As part of this process, the Personal Health Scale (PHS), a self-rated health status measure, was tested for the first time among postpartum women. Research volunteers completed the Structured Clinical Interview for DSM-IV Disorders (SCID), the 12-item General Health Questionnaire (GHQ), the PHS, the Postpartum Depression Screening Scale (PDSS), and the Edinburgh Postnatal Depression Scale (EPDS). Correlation coefficients were computed among the scores of the health status questionnaires and the postnatal depression scales. Bivariate linear regression analyses were conducted to evaluate the prediction of scores of postnatal depression scales having the scores of health status questionnaires as predictors. Significant correlations among both health status questionnaires and both postnatal screening tools attest to a significant interconnection between the expression of depressive symptoms and maternal health status in the postpartum period. The health status measures predicted the scores of postpartum depression scales. This study demonstrates that both general health questionnaires and postpartum depressive rating scales are useful tools for detecting depressive phenomena in postpartum women. The association between self-rated health measures and postpartum depression may be even more significant in the context of socioeconomic deprivation.
authors.affiliation: School of Medicine, University of Western Sydney, Sydney, Australia. zubaran_jr@yahoo.com.|Department of Psychiatry, Sydney West Area Health Service, P.O. Box 6010, Blacktown, NSW, 2148, Australia. zubaran_jr@yahoo.com.
authors.forename: Carlos
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Zubaran
authors.affiliation: School of Medicine, University of Caxias do Sul, Caxias do Sul, Brazil.
authors.forename: Katia
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Foresti
authors.affiliation: School of Medicine, University of Caxias do Sul, Caxias do Sul, Brazil.
authors.forename: Marina Verdi
authors.initials: MV
authors.lastname: Schumacher
authors.affiliation: School of Medicine, University of Caxias do Sul, Caxias do Sul, Brazil.
authors.forename: Aline Luz
authors.initials: AL
authors.lastname: Amoretti
authors.affiliation: Hospital Santa Casa de Misericórdia, Porto Alegre, Brazil.
authors.forename: Mariana Rossi
authors.initials: MR
authors.lastname: Thorell
authors.affiliation: Hospital Santa Casa de Misericórdia, Porto Alegre, Brazil.
authors.forename: Lúcia Cristina
authors.initials: LC
authors.lastname: Müller
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D001938:Brazil; D019052:Depression, Postpartum / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000523:psychology; D039721:Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders; D005260:Female; D006304:Health Status; D006801:Humans; D007407:Interviews as Topic; D008429:Maternal Welfare; D009035:Mothers / Q000523:psychology*; D011237:Predictive Value of Tests; D011569:Psychiatric Status Rating Scales; D015203:Reproducibility of Results; D012959:Socioeconomic Factors; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires; D055815:Young Adult
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