Investigation of the Edinburgh Postnatal Depression Scale’s Questions in the Screening of Postpartum Depression in Men

This study was designed to investigate whether the Edinburgh Postnatal Depression Scale (EPDS), which is widely used to screen for PPD in women, is an appropriate tool for men. Six men in their first year postpartum were interviewed between January 2013 and June 2013. The participating men were from a small northern community in the Peace Country region of Alberta. In order to understand how men interpreted the EPDS, cognitive interviews were conducted following guidelines by Willis (2005) to examine the following four cognitive methods of retrieval: comprehension, decision making, memory recall, and response making. The findings provided valuable information regarding the use of the EPDS to screen for paternal PPD. It is recommended that nurses consider men’s interpretations of the EPDS questions as part of the PPD screening. Further research is needed to determine appropriate EPDS cutoff scores for men in the postpartum period and the use of the EPDS in different populations.