Page Last Updated: May 16, 2026

Edinburgh Postnatal Depression Scale (EPDS)🔗

Table Namepex_bm_epds
ConstructPostnatal Depression
Study VisitsV01, V02, V03
Administration Child-specific: No
Respondent: Pregnant Participant or Birth Parent
Method: Self-administered in-person or remote (3 min estimated duration)
Quality Control
  • Checks for missing data based on counts for items completed by each participant
  • Verification of scoring accuracy
  • Summary statistics to examine item-level frequencies and total scores
  • Review of response distributions for potential outliers
Please review the Known Issues & Pending Updates page for updates that may affect data use.

Instrument Details🔗

The Edinburgh Postnatal Depression Scale (EPDS) is a sensitive, 10-item screening tool for prenatal and postpartum depression symptoms. It was selected for the HBCD Study to capture symptoms of prenatal and postnatal depression due to its ease of administration and widely accepted use.

Questionnaire prompt/instructions:

Since you are either pregnant or have recently had a baby, we want to know how you feel. MARK the answer that comes closest to how you have felt IN THE PAST 7 DAYS-not just how you feel today. In the past 7 days…

HBCD Modification Details â–¸

In the HBCD study, a ‘Decline to answer’ option was added to all items. A ‘Don’t know’ option was also available early in data collection, but was subsequently removed. Questions answered with ‘Decline to answer’ or ‘Don’t know’ are marked as missing. In addition, scores for EPDS Self-Harm (score>1) and Depression (total score>11) triggered clinical alerts for study staff.

Scoring Procedures â–¸

Items are scored on a 0→3 scale. Items 3, 5–10 are reverse-scored (i.e., 3→0): this is already reflected in the raw responses and no additional item-level scoring is required. Total scores are calculated as the sum of item responses. Scores are not prorated or set to missing for incomplete items; users should determine how to handle missing data.

References🔗

Cox, J. L., Holden, J. M., & Sagovsky, R. (1987). Detection of postnatal depression . Development of the 10-item Edinburgh Postnatal Depression Scale. British Journal of Psychiatry, 150, 782–786. https://doi.org/10.1192/bjp.150.6.782