Sensitivity and specificity of the three Whooley and Arroll questions for detecting perinatal depression in Mexican women

• Main Authors: Laura Navarrete (Author), Lourdes Nieto (Author), Ma. Asunción Lara (Author), Ma. del Carmen Lara (Author)
• Format: Book
• Published: Instituto Nacional de Salud Pública, 2018-12-01T00:00:00Z.
• Subjects: article
• Online Access: Connect to this object online.
• Notes: 0036-3634; 1606-7916; 10.21149/9083
• Keywords: depression postpartum; screening; sensitivity and specificity; primary healthcare; Public aspects of medicine; RA1-1270
• Source: Salud Pública de México, Vol 61, Iss 1, ene-feb, Pp 27-34 (2018)

Objective. To evaluate the sensitivity and specificity of the Two Whooley questions and the Arroll question, using the SCID, The Structured Clinical Interview (SCID-I) as the gold standard for detecting perinatal depression. Materials and methods. We interviewed 210 women during pregnancy and 6 months postpartum. Results. The criterion with the greatest sensitivity was responding positively to either Whooley question (pregnancy= 94.7 %; postpartum=100.0%), while the most specific criterion was responding positively to the two Whooley questions plus the Arroll question (Pregnan­cy=90.0% Postpartum = 85.7%). Conclusion. The Whooley and Arroll questions have adequate psychometric properties to detect possible cases of depression during the perinatal period. They can be applied during prenatal check-ups and postpartum consultations. Timely detection of women at risk of perinatal depression can contribute to their treatment for reducing their adverse consequences in mothers and infants.