Examining rates of postpartum depression in Active Duty U.S. military servicewomen

Nicholson, J. H., Moore, B. A., Dondanville, K., Wheeler, B., & DeVoe, E. R. (2020). Examining rates of postpartum depression in active duty US military servicewomen. Journal of Women’s Health, 29(12), 1530-1539. https://doi.org/10.1089/jwh.2019.8172

Postpartum depression (i.e., PPD; defined as the presence of depressive symptoms up to six months after giving birth) may be uniquely challenging for women Service members (henceforth, Servicewomen) given their possible exposure to military-specific stressors (e.g., previous deployments or combat). This study used data from the Defense Medical Epidemiological Database (DMED), which records any diagnosis given to Service members, to examine rates of PPD diagnoses in active-duty Servicewomen (N = 3,724) from 2001 to 2018. Multiple chi-square tests were conducted to determine whether expected and actual frequencies of PPD diagnoses differed based on Servicewomen’s age, race, marital status, service branch, or military pay grade. Expected frequencies were based on the DMED rates of pregnant Servicewomen in each demographic classification. The results showed that rates of PPD diagnoses were different than expected across demographic factors and that PPD might be underdiagnosed among Servicewomen.

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