The Mental Health Literacy Status of Pregnant Women in Eastern Iran Regarding Postpartum Depression and its Associated Factors

Abstract

Background and aims: Reducing the burden of mental health disorders can be achieved by increasing mental health literacy. The purpose of the current study was to investigate mental health literacy regarding postpartum depression among pregnant women in eastern Iran. Methods: This cross-sectional study was conducted on 277 pregnant women referred to health centers of Sarayan City (eastern Iran) in 2022. A standard health literacy questionnaire was used for data collection. The collected data were analyzed by SPSS version 19.0 using independent t-test, one-way analysis of variance, and regression analysis. The significance level was set at 0.05. Results: The mean age of participants was 20.28±1.5 years. In total, 96% had a diploma or a lower education level, and 59.6% had an average monthly income of less than 5 million Tomans. The mean total mental health literacy score regarding postpartum depression was 110.96±20.28 (score range: 31-155). The highest score was related to the attitude towards postpartum depression (3.73±0.91), and the lowest was related to the field of awareness of health services (3.09±1.36). The regression analysis showed that there is a significant relationship between mental health literacy (P<0.0001) and income (B=0.4) and education (B=0.3). Conclusion: The findings showed that the pregnant women participating in the research had an average level of mental health literacy. Since low health literacy prevents the correct understanding of health messages, it is recommended that mental health literacy should be increased and pregnant women should be empowered through education, especially mothers with lower income and educational levels.

Keywords

• mental health literacy
• depression
• postpartum period
• pregnant women