[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.