BRITISH JOURNAL OF P SYCHIATRY ( 2 0 0 4 ) , 1 8 4 , 3 4 ^ 4 0 Ethnoepidemiology of postnatal depression Prospective multivariate study of sociocultural risk factors in a Chinese population in Hong Kong DOMINIC T. S. LEE, ALEXANDER S. K. YIP, TONY Y. S. LEUNG and TONY K. H. CHUNG DOMINIC T. S. LEE,MD,MRCPsych,Department of Social Medicine,Harvard Medical School,Boston, Massachusetts,USA, and Department of Psychiatry,Chinese University of Hong Kong,Hong Kong; ALEXANDER S.K.YIP,MD, FRACOG,Department of Obstetrics and Gynaecology,Chinese University of Hong Kong;TONY Y. S. LEUNG,MPhil,Department of Psychiatry,Chinese University of Hong Kong; TONYK.H.CHUNG,MD FRACOG,Department of Obstetrics and Gynaecology,Chinese University of Hong Kong,Hong Kong Abstract Background Although there have been many studies of the biological and psychosocial causations of postnatal depression, studies of socioculturalrisk factors are rare. Aims To investigate the sociocultural risk factors of postnatal depression using ethnographically informed epidemiological methods. Method A total of 959 women were assessed attheir first ante-partumvisit (baseline), in the third trimester, immediately afterdelivery, and 3 months post-partum. Six domains of risk factors were examined. The dependent variable was postnatal depression (as defined by the Edinburgh Postnatal Depression Scale) at 3 months post-partum. Results Conflict with mother-in-law, marital dissatisfaction, past depression and antenatal depression independently predicted the occurrence of postnatal depression.The cultural practice of peiyue - a Chinese post-partumcustom ofmandated family support - was associated with better social support anda slightly lower risk of postnatal depression. Conclusions Sociocultural aspects of the immediate puerperium shape maternal emotional well-being. In-law conflict is an important source of household distress in many Asian societies. The findings have implications for clinical practice and future studies. Declaration of interest None. Funding detailed in Acknowledgements. Correspondence:Dr DominicT. S.Lee, c/o Departmentof Psychiatry,Chinese University of Hong Kong, Shatin,Hong Kong. Fax: (617) 812 0077; e-mail: tak_lee@hms.harvard.edu 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 ...