Assessing antenatal depression in primary care with the PHQ-2 and PHQ-9: Can It Be carried Out by auxiliary nurse midwife (ANM)?

Antenatal Depression (AD) is prevalent in India but remains unidentified and untreated in primary care settings. The Auxiliary Nursing Midwife (ANM), a non-specialist health care worker at antenatal care (ANC) clinic or at a primary care centre can improve the detection of women with AD. In this study, we aimed to estimate the inter-rater reliability of the Patient Health Questionnaire (PHQ-9) and PHQ-2, administered by ANMs, with mental health professionals, that is, Clinical Psychologists(CP). The prospective, blind, observational study was conducted in an antenatal clinic of tertiary care rural hospital of India. PHQ-2 and PHQ-9(Marathi) valid and translated versions were administered to consecutive antenatal women (n = 108) aged 18-45 years by two raters (CP, ANM) independently. Raters and data analyst were blinded to each other's scores. Kappa Coefficient, weighted kappa, Intra-class correlation coefficients (ICC) were used to assess Inter-rater reliability. The mean age of the study participants was 25.91 ± 4.39 years. Inter-rater reliability for PHQ-2 (Screen -Positive or Negative for depression) and PHQ-9 (Severity of depression) was (k = 0.675) and (k = 0.732) respectively, which suggested the 'substantial' agreement between ANMs and CP. Among raters, the ICC (95 % confidence interval) was 0.90 (0.85, 0.93) for the PHQ-9 score and for the PHQ-2 was 0.873 (0.819-0.911), which was suggestive of excellent and good reliability respectively. The 'substantial' agreement and 'good to excellent' inter-rater reliability among ANM and CP suggest that these two scales can be used to screen and assess the severity of AD by either qualified or minimally trained, community health workers.