Validation of the Sinhala translation of the Edinburgh Postnatal Depression Scale

Abstract

OBJECTIVE: To validate the Sinhala translation of Edinburgh Postnatal Depression Scale (EPDS) to detect depression in antenatal and postnatal mothers. METHODOLOGY: Content validity of EPDS was checked by a panel of experts. Translation of the English questionnaire by bilingual experts to Sinhala by 'translation back translation1 method followed. Thereafter alternate form reliability of the instrument was checked. Criterion validity of the instrument was assessed against a 'gold standard', which was the clinical diagnosis by a consultant psychiatrist based on ICD 10 Research Diagnostic Criteria. This was done in field combine clinics of Medical Officer of Health area Kolonnawa. The antenatal mothers completing 34 weeks of period of amenorrhea and postnatal mothers 6 weeks after partus were administered the EPDS followed by the clinical psychiatric interview. The cut off scores for EPDS to identify depression in antenatal and postnatal mothers were determined using the Receiver Operator Characteristic (ROC) curves. RESULTS: The cut off score of 9/10 (sensitivity of 90.7% and a specificity of 86.8%) was the best cut off to screen for depression in antenatal mothers. In postnatal mothers a cut off score of 9/10 (sensitivity of 89.9% and a specificity of 78,9%) was the best cut off score to screen for postpartum depression.CONCLUSION: Sinhala translation of EPDS is a reliable and a valid instrument to detect depression in antenatal and postnatal mothers in Sri Lanka.