Validity of the Beck Depression Inventory in the postpartum period

Abstract

Objective. While there is a recommendation to screen for postpartum depression (PPD), there are worries about the validity of instruments other than the Edinburgh Postnatal Depression Scale; little is known about the construct validity of one of the most used screening instruments, the Beck Depression Inventory, in this period. Methods. This study evaluated the validity and reliability of the BDI in a population-based sample of women and their spouses (n=772) in the postpartum. Additionally, we compared factor scores within the couple. Results. Exploratory factor analysis demonstrated a two-factor solution (depressive symptoms and somatic symptoms), accounting for 44.01% of the total variance. Internal consistency was good (Cronbach's α=0.90). Women had higher scores than their partners in both factors (P<0.001), but not a higher proportion of the total score attributable to somatic symptoms. Conclusion. With little factor variance between women and men, and a similar proportion of somatic symptoms, these results should be taken to reinforce the validity of the BDI in the postpartum.

Positive Emotions During Infant Feeding and Postpartum Mental Health

“…30 Both instruments have been validated in perinatal populations. 31,32 Outcomes were assessed as both continuous symptoms and binary thresholds for meeting clinically significant cutoffs for depression or anxiety. A BDI-II cutoff of ‡14 has been shown to have a 92% sensitivity and 83% specificity for major depression based on a Mini International Neuropsychiatric Interview in a postpartum outpatient sample, 33 and a STAI-S >40 administered at 1 week postpartum had a 67.5% sensitivity and 87.1% specificity in identifying anxious mothers at 8 weeks.…”