Introduction:
Postpartum depression includes major and minor depressive disorders affecting women in the time period after childbirth. The studies reviewed in our literature found that the COVID-19 pandemic has increased the risk of postpartum depression for women. Our study location, the Rio Grande Valley is one of the hardest-hit locations by the COVID-19 pandemic in the United States. Our patient population is also one with the higher risk factors for postpartum depression. As such, we are expecting the psychological impact of the pandemic to be even more magnified, and thus, actions need to be taken to support the vulnerable population of postpartum women.
Objective:
This project is a retrospective study for the period between April 1 - December 1, 2020, to the same time period of 2019. Our objective is to evaluate the trends in total Edinburgh Postnatal Depression Scale (EPDS) scores over these months and to correlate the trends in the scoring of the individual questions in the screening questionnaire to parameters of COVID disease in Hidalgo county over the same time periods.
Research Plan and Methods:
All postpartum patients who delivered at the Women’s Hospital at Renaissance are routinely administered the EPDS. This questionnaire can be collected from the patient\u27s electronic record by the Business Informatics team at DHR without including patient identifiers. Descriptive analysis of the data will be performed. Statistical analysis will be performed using SPSS.
Results and Conclusion:
Results from the analysis of trends in EPDS scores will be presented and analytic issues will be discussed. No conclusion can be drawn at this time
