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Validation of a Romanian scale to detect antenatal depression

2011; De Gruyter Open; Volume: 7; Issue: 2 Linguagem: Inglês

10.2478/s11536-011-0130-1

2391-5463

Anne Wallis, Roberto J. Fernández, Florin Oprescu, Răzvan Mircea Cherecheș, Alina Zlati, Claibourne I. Dungy,

Child and Adolescent Psychosocial and Emotional Development

Abstract The aim of this study was to develop and validate a linguistically and culturally appropriate version of the Edinburgh Postnatal Depression Scale (EPDS) for use with women attending antenatal care in Romania. We translated and tested a Romanian version of the EPDS (EPDS-R) in four hospitals in three Romanian cities: Cluj-Napoca, Satu Mare, and Sighetu-Marmatiei. The study population included third-trimester women attending antenatal clinics (n=418); 364 subjects were included in the analytic sample. We used the Center for Epidemiologic Studies Depression Scale (CES-D) as a “gold standard”. We assessed reliability, validity, and conducted sensitivity analysis to establish an EPDS-R cutpoint. We found that reliability was robust (α=0.89) and there was a significant linear relationship between EPDS-R and CES-D scores (r=0.77; p<0.001). We established an EPDS-R cutpoint of >12 to balance sensitivity and specificity. Principal component analysis revealed a two-factor solution. We detected antenatal depressive symptoms prevalence rates of 32% (CES-D) and 38% (EPDS-R). This is the first study to report exclusively on antenatal depression and the use of the EPDS in Central and Eastern Europe. The EPDS-R is easy to administer, reliable, and valid for screening depression among antenatal women in Romania.