Postpartum depression
Postpartum depression (PPD) is a serious health concern
affecting approximately 13 % of all women [1]. At least
19.2 % of women experience depression within 12 months
after giving birth [2]. The associations between prenatal
depression and PPD depression are well documented [3–5].
Psychosocial factors including high stress, low social sup-
port, and low marital satisfaction are also predictors [4, 5].
Surprisingly little is known about the extent to which
postpartum depression varies by race and ethnicity, given the
effects of culture on the experiences and manifestations of
depression [6, 7]. This dearth of information on postpartum
depression in ethnic minorities is well recognized. In a
published review of maternal depression, the Agency for
Healthcare Research and Quality found ‘‘screening instru-
ments [to be] poorly representative of the U.S. population,’’
and that ‘‘populations [from studies] were overwhelmingly
Caucasian’’ [8]. A review by O’Hara found that meta-anal-
yses on postpartum depression had omitted race and eth-
nicity as risk factors for postpartum depression [4].
Research studies on postpartum depression that have
included ethnic minorities generally compare African
C. H. Liu (&) Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, Harvard Medical School,
75 Fenwood Road, Boston, MA 02115, USA
e-mail: cliu@bidmc.harvard.edu
E. Tronick
Child Development Unit, University of Massachusetts,
100 Morrissey Blvd, Boston, MA 02125, USA
e-mail: Ed.Tronick@umb.edu
123
Matern Child Health J (2013) 17:1599–1610
DOI 10.1007/s10995-012-1171-z
Americans and Hispanics with Whites. In these studies,
group differences in prevalence rates have shown to be
inconsistent. Across studies, the rates of postpartum
depression in African American and Hispanic women were
found to be higher [9], lower [10], or no different [11]
compared to Whites. What accounts for observed racial and
ethnic differences in prevalence is unclear. In some studies,
sociodemographic risk variables were associated with
higher levels of depressive symptomatology among Afri-
can Americans, raising the possibility that sociodemo-
graphic variables rather than race and ethnicity account for
different levels of postpartum depression [12–14]. In con-
trast, others have shown greater levels of depressive
symptomatology among African Americans and Hispanics
than Whites, after accounting for sociodemographic factors
[9]. While certain social factors could increase risk, some
factors might buffer against postpartum depression within
groups. For instance, low income foreign-born Hispanic
women with social support exhibited lower rates of post-
partum depression [15], whereas bilingual Hispanic women
were at greater risk than those who spoke only Spanish
[11]. It is possible that factors such as social support or
nativity and its effect on the likelihood of postpartum
depression differ by race/ethnicity because they express
different meanings or incur different implications for each
group. Moreover, stigmas about psychological problems
and help-seeking may have an effect on identifying post-
partum depression, resulting in a subsequent effect on
reported prevalence of postpartum depression rates [6, 16].
Given the mixed picture across groups, this study aimed to
systematically determine the extent to which prevalence
rates across race and ethnicity are explained by factors
associated with postpartum depression.
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This study uniquely includes Asian/Pacific Islander
(API) women within the U.S. As the fastest growing ethnic
minority group, over 16 million APIs are estimated to be
living in the U.S [17, 18]. The research on API postpartum
experiences is limited, which is striking given that API
women may hold several risk factors.
If psychiatric history is a major predictor, API women
may be at greatest risk: those between the ages of
15–24 years have the highest rate of depression and su-
icidality compared to any other ethnicity, gender, or age
[19–21]. One study showed APIs to be at lower risk for
postpartum depressive symptoms compared to Whites,
African Americans, and Hispanics [14], while another
study reported a greater percentage of APIs with post-
partum symptoms compared to White Americans [22].
Analyses conducted by the New York City Department of
Health and Mental Hygiene on data from the 2004 to 2007
New York City (NYC) Pregnancy Risk Assessment Mon-
itoring System (PRAMS) revealed a higher rate of PPD
diagnoses among APIs compared to other groups [23–25].
From the most recent sample in 2007, 10.4 % of API
received a PPD diagnosis compared to 1.7 % of non-His-
panic White women [26]. These findings suggest a poten-
tial risk for postpartum depression in API
This study examines racial/ethnic disparities in PPD
diagnosis by identifying predictors accounting for preva-
lence differences. Because previous studies have either
focused mostly on small samples of one group, or did not
examine these risk factors by race/ethnicity, we hypothe-
size that associations of risk factors and PPD differ by race/
ethnic group. The risk factors evaluated were selected
based on the current literature [27–31]. Our study also
sought to explain disparities in PPD rates from a published
report by the NYC Department of Health and Mental
Hygiene. We utilized the study’s comprehensive popula-
tion-based dataset. We also sought to determine the
strength of predictors within each group and differences
across groups. Accordingly, we stratified our analyses by
race/ethnicity. Determining the strength of predictors by
group is essential for identifying individuals most at risk,
and may inform the possible causes of depression for dif-
ferent groups. Unique to this study was the use of diagnosis
as an outcome measure, the inclusion of information on
whether providers talked to women about depressed mood,
and an adequate sample size of APIs. This allowed us to
also examine disparities in psycho-education and diagnosis
across groups.
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