Prevalence of post partum depression in parents. An analysis of possible risk and protective  factors. Preliminary results

• This project investigated the retrospective prevalence of depression in both fathers and mothers of children born in the period 1994–1998. Self-administrative questionnaires were sent to the parents of 1736 children in a rural part of Western Norway. We collected information on their symptoms of depression, when the particular child was born, the parents’ education level, their type of employment, marital status, and degree of social support from their own family and from their friends. To assess depression, Kendler’s scale of life time depression was used. This is a 6-item scale classifying clinical depression to mild depression according to the ICD-10. In addition we asked about onset of the symptoms and the duration of depression and if the symptoms had been recurrentThe response rate of the questionnaires was 39.2%. A total of 1139 replies were received for 680 children (53% girls). Of the parents (55% mothers, 45% fathers), we found that 5.5% of the mothers and 0.4% of the fathers reported a score above cut-off indicating that they suffered from a postpartum depression after the child was born. In addition, a sub-clinical depression with at least 3 significant symptoms was reported by 3.5% of the mothers and 0.8% of the fathers. Age, education and employment of the parents, size of the family and social support as possible risk factors will be discussed.In this study, the prevalence of a clinical depression about 15 years ago was lower than that observed in more recent studies in Norway. This could be due to different methods in measuring depression, but may also indicate that postnatal depression is indeed an increasing health problem.   

Subject headings

MEDICIN OCH HÄLSOVETENSKAP  -- Klinisk medicin -- Psykiatri (hsv//swe)

MEDICAL AND HEALTH SCIENCES  -- Clinical Medicine -- Psychiatry (hsv//eng)

SAMHÄLLSVETENSKAP  -- Psykologi -- Tillämpad psykologi (hsv//swe)

SOCIAL SCIENCES  -- Psychology -- Applied Psychology (hsv//eng)

Keyword

Depression

Parenting

Risk factors

Publication and Content Type

ref (subject category)

kon (subject category)