The relationship between postpartum depression and social support during the COVID-19 pandemic: A cross-sectional study

Aim This study aims to examine the prevalence of postpartum depression and its relationship with social support adjusted for self-perceived impact of COVID-19 in parturient women admitted to a perinatal medical center in Japan. Methods This cross-sectional study included 513 women who underwent a 1-month postpartum checkup between August 3 and November 27, 2020. Postpartum depression was measured using the Edinburgh Postnatal Depression Scale. Social support was measured using the Multidimensional Scale of Perceived Social Support and the score was dichotomized using the Youden index. Nineteen demographic and obstetric characteristics were also assessed. Results Postpartum depression was observed in 35 (7.6%) of 461 women: 25 (26.6%) and 10 (2.7%) in the low- and high-support groups, respectively. Women in the low-support group were significantly more likely to have postpartum depression than those in the high-support group (odds ratio [OR], 11.7; 95% confidence interval [CI], 5.4-27.3; p < 0.001). Furthermore, no interaction was observed between social support and the impact of COVID-19 for postpartum depression (p = 0.32). Conclusions The prevalence of postpartum depression in the study institution was lower than that reported by previous studies in Japan. Moreover, social support was an important predictive factor for postpartum depression during the COVID-19 pandemic.