Predictors of psychological distress among postpartum women at a tertiary health institution in Nigeria.

OBJECTIVE: To assess psychological distress and its predictors among postpartum women at a tertiary health institution. METHODS: We adopted an analytical cross-sectional design. We recruited 195 postpartum women using a purposive sampling technique. A structured paper questionnaire adapted from previous studies was used. We assessed psychological distress using the Kessler Psychological Distress Scale (K10). The predictors of psychological distress were determined using multivariable binary logistic regression. The level of significance was set at 0.05. RESULTS: The overall mean score was 18.96 ± 6.48 from a total obtainable score of 50 from the K10 scale. Fifty-one (26.2%) reported a high level of psychological distress. Young age (AOR = 2.132, 95% CI 1.659-5.935), a low education level (AOR = 3.362, 95% CI 1.822-4.873), multiparity (AOR = 2.431, 95% CI 1.581-7.755), previous history of abortion (AOR = 3.530, 95% CI 2.474-5.060), pre-pregnancy alcohol use (AOR = 3.167, 95% CI 1.265-7.786), and intimate partner violence (AOR = 5.493, 95% CI 3.410-7.142) were significant predictors of postpartum psychological distress. CONCLUSION: Our study finds a high prevalence of psychological distress among postpartum women and recommends that targeted screening and interventions should be developed to provide support and treatment for pregnant and postpartum women identified with psychological distress.