The Postpartum Depression Screening Scale: Its Reliability and Validity for the Turkish Population.

Objective: The aim of this study was to determine the reliability and validity of the Postpartum Depression Screening Scale (PDSS) for the Turkish population. Method: The research was conducted in the province of Ankara between 15 June 2003 and 15 February 2004. The study sample included 445 women in their 2nd-13th postpartum week. Data were collected with a sociodemographic form, PDSS, Beck Depression Inventory (BDI), and Edinburgh Postpartum Depression Scale (EPDS). Results: The internal consistency coefficient (Cronbach's alpha) of PDSS was 0.94, its test-retest reliability was r = 0.86 and the coefficient of the two-halves test was r = 0.91. Factor analysis of the scale revealed that it was composed of 6 factors with Eigenvalues > 1, accounting for 54.69% of the total variance. All items of the Turkish PDSS had a factor load ranging from 0.34 to 0.77 and they all belonged to 1 factor. There was a strong relationship between PDSS, and BDI (r = 0.71) and EPDS (r = 0.71). Item-to-total correlation coefficients of the Turkish PDSS ranged from 0.35 to 0.68 and item-to-total correlation coefficients of its subscales ranged from 0.31 and 0.71, and they were sufficiently discriminative. Conclusion: The research suggests that the validity and reliability of the Turkish PDSS are satisfactory, and that it can be used in Turkey. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]