An evaluation of postnatal depression among women in Kuwait: findings from a web-based survey

OBJECTIVE: To measure the prevalence and associated factors, and experience of women about screening for postnatal depression in Kuwait. METHODS: A descriptive, cross-sectional study was conducted in which a sample 158 women who had recently attended obstetric clinics in Kuwait during the COVID-19 pandemic in Kuwait was included. Data were collected during January 2021 to the last week of May 2021 using a validated questionnaire comprising of two parts, sociodemographic part also including questions about COVID-19, and Edinburgh Postnatal Depression Scale. The questionnaire was distributed through healthcare providers to the eligible women who had recently given birth in Kuwait. Women were also snowballed through those who answered the questionnaire. The statistical significance of observed differences between variables was analyzed using the Chi-squared test. RESULTS: Postnatal depression was found in 31 (19.6%), highly possible in 23 (14.6%), and probable in 52 (32.9%) women in our study. A large proportion of the women (105 or 66.5%) said that they were not aware of a screening process for postnatal depression, whereas only 5.7% said that they had been screened for it. In the sample, 97 (65.1%) women who were not screened had Postnatal depression (P <0.05). CONCLUSION: Maternal postnatal depression was high in Kuwaiti women who were either in their third trimester or had just given birth to a baby. The lack of awareness about the screening process and extremely low levels of screening for postnatal depression indicates the need to improve these women’s access to adequate screening services around pregnancy.