Postpartum Depression in Fathers and Associated Risk Factors: A Systematic Review

Abstract

The postpartum period is a process that affects mothers and fathers mentally. In this systematic review, we aimed to investigate the literature on postpartum depression and elucidate the factors associated with depression in fathers/men; and eventually to draw attention to the subject. A literature search was conducted between April-May 2019 including qualitative and quantitative research articles published between 2009-2019 in Pubmed, Science Direct, EBSCOhost, Turkish Psychiatric Index and Ulakbim Medical Databases. A total of 18 articles in English (n = 17) and Turkish (n = 1) were included. The majority of studies were quantitative (n=17) and 1 had a qualitative design. 22.2% were carried out in the Americas, 61.1% in Europe and 16.7% in Asia. In 16 of the studies, Edinburgh Postpartum Depression Scale was used to diagnose postpartum depression in fathers, and 4 of them assessed psychometric properties. According to the results of the findings, unemployment, age, economic status and social support were among the factors affecting postpartum depression in fathers. Besides the factors affecting the mothers such as age, education, social support, whether the pregnancy was planned, parenting stress, parental stress/sense of competence, quality of the relationship with the spouse, history of depression, number of people living at home; factors such as housing status, economic situation and unemployment affect postnatal depression in fathers. Since there was only one research article from Turkey, we believe that there is a need for research on this subject in our country.