Postnatal depression in Colombian women: secondary analysis of the 2010 Colombian Demographic and Health Survey

© 2014, Universidad Nacional de Colombia. All rights reserved.Objective Examining the prevalence of self-reported postpartum depression (PD) in a representative sample of Colombian women. Methods A secondary analysis was made of the Colombian Demographic and Health Survey 2010; the survey included 53 521 women aged 13 to 49 yearsold. A clinical diagnosis of depression by self-report, during the first six months’ postpartum as a perinatal complication, was defined as the dependent variable by interview. Logistic regression was used, taking into account the multistage study design and adjusting for potential confounders. The results were presented as adjusted odds ratios (OR) with 95 % confidence intervals (95 % CI). Results Overall PD prevalence was 12.9 %, being higher in urban areas (15.1 %) than in rural areas (6.8 %) and in women aged 20-34 years-old (13.4 %). The Amazonas and Guainía departments had lower PD prevalence (3.1 % and 3.5 % respectively), while the city of Bogotá and the Quindío department had higher prevalence (18.1 % and 22.1 % PD, respectively). After adjustment, women aged 20 to 34 years-old (OR=1.15: 1.03 to 1.28 95 % CI), primigravidae (OR=1.42: 1.28-1.57 95 % CI), residing in urban areas (OR=2.43: 2.06 to 2.87 95 % CI) and having had university level education (OR=2.22: 1.98 to 2.48 95 % CI) were associated with PD. Conclusions A high prevalence of postpartum depression was found in the study population. Socio-demographic and geographic factors contributed towards depression according to self-report. More research is needed to enable early identification of and intervention in women suffering from depression.