Determinants of Postpartum Depressive Symptomatology—A Prospective Multivariate Study among Hong Kong Chinese Women / 中国心理卫生杂志

ABSTRACT

Objective:Postpartum depression is a common psychiatric disorder that causes pervasive harm to the mother,newborn,and other members of the family.Researches on the etiologies of postpartum depression have mostly been based on western subjects.There is also a lack of empirical research on the socio-cultural causations of postpartum depression.The objective of the present study was to identify demographic,psychosocial,and ethnocultural factors that determine postpartum depressive symptomatology in Chinese women.Methods:A total of 959 consecutive pregnant Chinese women who attended the antepartum booking clinic of a university-affiliated general hospital were assessed at their first antepartum visit(baseline),in the third trimester,immediately post-delivery,and 3-month postpartum.Six domains of risk factors-demographics and socio-economic background, medical and psychiatric history,antepartum depressive mood,perinatal stressor,interpersonal relationship,and ethnocultural milieu-were examined using hierarchical regression.The dependent variable was the depression score at 3 months postpartum.Results:Postpartum depressive symptomatology was determined by concurrent life events, lack of social support,marital dissatisfaction,past deliberate self-harm,and antepartum depressed mood.Poor mother-in-law relationship and absence of peiyue(a traditional postpartum custom of mandated family support)was also associated with higher depression scores in the postpartum period.Conclusions:Risk factors of postpartum depression established in western studies are generally applicable to Chinese women.Socio-cultural aspects of the immediate puerperium also determine postpartum maternal emotional well being.