50 research outputs found
Coping strategies of women with postpartum depression symptoms in rural Ethiopia: a cross-sectional community study
Background:
Most women with postpartum depression (PPD) in low- and middle-income countries remain undiagnosed and untreated, despite evidence for adverse effects on the woman and her child. The aim of this study was to identify the coping strategies used by women with PPD symptoms in rural Ethiopia to inform the development of socio-culturally appropriate interventions.
Methods:
A population-based, cross-sectional study was conducted in a predominantly rural district in southern Ethiopia.
All women with live infants between one and 12 months post-partum (n = 3147) were screened for depression symptoms using the validated Patient Health Questionnaire, 9 item version (PHQ-9). Those scoring five or more, ‘high PPD
symptoms’, (n = 385) were included in this study. The Brief Coping with Problems Experienced (COPE-28) scale was used
to assess coping strategies. Construct validity of the brief COPE was evaluated using confirmatory factor analysis.
Results:
Confirmatory factor analysis of the brief COPE scale supported the previously hypothesized three dimensions of
coping (problem-focused, emotion-focused, and dysfunctional). Emotion-focused coping was the most commonly employed coping strategy by women with PPD symptoms. Urban residence was associated positively with all three dimensions of coping. Women who had attended formal education and who attributed their symptoms to a physical cause were more likely to use both problem-focused and emotion-focused coping strategies. Women with better subjective wealth and those who perceived that their husband drank too much alcohol were more likely to use emotion-focused coping. Dysfunctional coping strategies were reported by women who had a poor relationship with their husbands.
Conclusions:
As in high-income countries, women with PPD symptoms were most likely to use emotion-focused and dysfunctional coping strategies. Poverty and the low level of awareness of depression as an illness may additionally impede problem-solving attempts to cope. Prospective studies are needed to understand the prognostic significance of coping styles in this setting and to inform psychosocial intervention development
Psychometric properties and factor structure of the Fertility Problem Inventory in a sample of infertile women undergoing fertility treatment
Objective: to examine the psychometric properties of the Fertility
Problem Inventory (FPI) originally developed by Newton et al. (1999); as
there are no data concerning the factorial structure of the FPI, a
special focus is placed on construct validity through factor analysis.
Setting: public hospital in Athens, Greece.
Design: a cross-sectional study.
Participants: 108 women undergoing fertility treatment with in-vitro
fertilisation.
Methods: the FPI was ‘forward-backward’ translated from English to
Greek. The translated instrument was then administered to a set of
infertile women for pilot testing. Principal axis factoring with promax
rotation was used to test the factor structure of the FPI. Measures of
anxiety State Trait Anxiety Inventory, depression (Center for
Epidemiologic Studies-Depression Scale) and mood states Profile of Mood
States were used to assess the convergent validity of the FPI.
Cronbach’s alpha was used to measure internal consistency of the FPI
scales.
Findings: exploratory factor analysis suggested four factors. The
majority of relationship and sexual concern items grouped into one solid
factor, named ‘spousal concern’. The original scales of social concern,
need for parenthood and rejection of childfree lifestyle were reproduced
after rearranging nine cross-loading items. Construct validity was
confirmed by computing correlations between the derived FPI scales and
conceptually similar constructions of anxiety, depression and mood
states. Internal consistency reliability was satisfactory.
Conclusion: the FPI was found to have a relatively stable factor
structure and satisfactory reliability, and convergent and discriminant
validity. The FPI may enable researchers and clinicians to apply a
reliable measure that focuses on various/many dimensions of
infertility-related stress. (C) 2010 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved
The impact of infertility diagnosis on psychological status of women undergoing fertility treatment
Despite the great number of studies conducted to examine the impact of infertility on the psychological status of women undergoing infertility treatment, little is known about the psychological impact of infertility when it is due to male or female factors and its role in the cause of higher levels of anxiety and stress. The aim of this cross-sectional study was to assess the impact of infertility diagnosis on infertile women's levels of anxiety, depression and fertility-related stress. The study involved 404 women undergoing fertility treatment in a public clinic in Athens. The research instruments were three self-administrated questionnaires. State and trait anxiety, infertility-related stress (personal, social and marital domain) and depression were measured. Most of the women in this sample had low levels of infertility-related stress and a low score for depression, but higher scores of state and trait anxiety than the published normative scores. Women with male factor infertility had higher levels of state anxiety (p = 0.007) and social stress (p = 0.007) than women with female, mixed and unknown infertility. Women with idiopathic infertility also had higher levels of trait anxiety (p = 0.001). Thus, the psychological status of women is strongly related to the aetiology of the infertility problem, and as a result it is necessary for women undergoing treatment for infertility to have an individualised psychological support, based on their infertility problem