Screening Hospitalized Pregnant Women for Possible Distress: A Comparison of the Clinical Usefulness of Two Screening Measures

Pregnancy is a period of great complexity and potential psychological vulnerability which may increase in unfavorable conditions, such as hospitalization. Therefore, ear-ly identification of emotional, anxious or depressive difficulties is important in terms of maternal and fetal well-being. International guidelines recommend the use of brief screening tools to identify perinatal women for further investigation, but which meas-ure is optimal remains to be clarified. The objective of this study was to compare the Whooley depression questions used together with the Generalized Anxiety Disorder-2 (GAD-2), versus the Matthey Generic Mood Questionnaire (MGMQ), to evaluate their concordance in screening results and their clinical usefulness in the hospital setting. 228, hospitalized pregnant women, and some of their partners, completed both ques-tionnaires, and expressed their satisfaction and ease of completion of each. Results showed high similar screen positive rates on both measures, but the screen positive concordance between the two instruments was low (around 50%). The Whooley/GAD-2 missed a significant percentage of women who, on the MGMQ, wished to talk with a professional, or who expressed moderate to high distress. Find-ings suggest that screening is important in hospitalized women, and clinicians should consider the respective merits and possible weaknesses of different screening tools.