How well does the Edinburgh Postnatal Depression Scale identify depression and anxiety in fathers? A validation study in a population based Swedish sample

Postnatal Sense of Security, Anxiety and Risk for Postnatal Depression

“…Correlations between PPSS and EPDS and also between PPSS and STAI-state for mothers were strong, whereas for fathers the correlation between PPSS and EPDS was weak. However, fathers' scores for PPSS and STAI-state were moderately well correlated which is a finding in line with findings from Massoudi et al (20). This suggests that our hypothesis that a lack of security in the early postnatal period might predispose parents to anxiety and postnatal depression and that anxiety and depression can be seen as indicators of insecurity.…”

“…The scale measures both anxiety and depression and is commonly used at approximately two to three months postpartum. Recently Massoudi et al (20) showed that that the EPDS scale picked up more worry, anxiety and unhappiness than depression when used for fathers. The STAI-state (State Trait Anxiety Inventory) instrument was developed to measure present anxiety (21).…”

The Edinburgh Postnatal Depression Scale for Fathers: A contribution to the validation for an Italian sample

“…The authors also suggest a value of 8 or more for screening anxiety; however, they did not show the data for ROC analysis of the EPDS-3A. Based on their findings, Massoudi et al (2013) [32] concluded that the EPDS in fathers has a factor structure different from that found in mothers; they added that the EPDS administered to fathers, rather than depression, identifies distress, including in fact the items related to worry, anxiety and unhappiness. They also suggest that the EPDS may be useful to screen the possible presence of major depression, but they do not recommend its use for the screening of minor depression and anxiety disorders.…”

“…A final validation study, conducted recently by Massoudi et al (2013) [32], has been done in Sweden on a sample of 882 fathers and showed a good internal consistency of the test (α=.81). In addition, because of different factor structure for fathers and mothers reported by Matthey (2008) [27], they also carried out an explorative factor analysis (EFA).…”

“…Table 3 shows the saturation values of the two factors. Since the factorial structure emerged is similar to that identified by Massoudi et al (2013) [32], we decided to name the factors distress and depression. On the Factor 2 (depression) saturate the two items that are the main features of depression (1 and 2).…”