Sensitivity and specificity of the three Whooley and Arroll questions for detecting perinatal depression in Mexican women

Abstract

Objective. To evaluate the sensitivity and specificity of the Two Whooley questions and the Arroll question, using the SCID, The Structured Clinical Interview (SCID-I) as the gold standard for detecting perinatal depression. Materials and methods. We interviewed 210 women during pregnancy and 6 months postpartum. Results. The criterion with the greatest sensitivity was responding positively to either Whooley question (pregnancy= 94.7 %; postpartum=100.0%), while the most specific criterion was responding positively to the two Whooley questions plus the Arroll question (Pregnan­cy=90.0% Postpartum = 85.7%). Conclusion. The Whooley and Arroll questions have adequate psychometric properties to detect possible cases of depression during the perinatal period. They can be applied during prenatal check-ups and postpartum consultations. Timely detection of women at risk of perinatal depression can contribute to their treatment for reducing their adverse consequences in mothers and infants.

Psychometric properties of the Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale in Mexican pregnant women

“…Using the structure detected and the cut-off points originally proposed by (Zigmond & Snaith, 1983), the prevalence of anxiety was greater than that of depression. This result is consistent with international data (Brunton et al, 2015), and national data (Gómez López et al, 2006;Sainz Aceves et al, 2013;Ceballos-Martínez et al, 2010;Berenzon et al, 2013;Navarrete et al, 2019;Lara et al, 2015;Lara & Navarrete, 2012). However, this result should be treated with caution since in the original scale there is an equivalent number of items for each condition evaluated.…”

“…International data indicate that anxiety is more frequent than depression, with a prevalence of over 27% and 13% respectively (Brunton, Dryer, Saliba, & Kohlhoff, 2015). In Mexico, the prevalence of anxiety ranges between 23% and 50% (Gómez López, Aldana Calva, Carreño Meléndez, & Sánchez Bravo, 2006;Sainz Aceves, Chávez Ureña, Díaz Contreras, Sandoval Magaña, & Robles Romero, 2013), while depres-sion is between 6% and 67% (Sainz Aceves et al, 2013;Ceballos-Martínez et al, 2010;Berenzon, Lara, Robles, & Medina-Mora, 2013;Navarrete, Nieto, Lara, & Lara, 2019;Lara et al, 2015;Lara & Navarrete, 2012).…”

“…To assess anxiety and prenatal depression in the Mexican population, the Whooley Questions/Help Question (WQHQ) (WQHQ; Navarrete et al, 2019), the Structured Clinical Interview (SCID-I) (Lara et al, 2015), the Depression Scale of the Center for Epidemiological Studies (CES-D) (Lara & Navarrete, 2012), the Goldberg Depression and Anxiety Scale (EDAG;Sainz Aceves et al, 2013), and the Edinburgh Perinatal Depression Scale (EDPN;Ceballos-Martínez et al, 2010) have been used. Although these instruments are validated with said population, they present various inconveniences for their use.…”