Reviewer ’s report  
Title: Investigation of the association between quality of life and depressive symptoms during  
postpartum period: A correlational study.  
 
Version: 0 Date: 17 Jan 2017  
 
Reviewer: Touran Shafiei  
 
Reviewer's report:  
The study explored the association between postpartum dep ression and quality of life among a 
sample of Greece mothers.  
 
Overall the manuscript requires more information about methods of the study and description of 
analyses and findings. It also needs some editing.  
Abstract -line 44 states "9.9% of the participan ts suffered from postpartum depression"; using the 
EPDS indicates a probable experience of postnatal depression not a diagnosis.  
 
Background:  
There is not enough/clear rationale why the study was conducted; page 4 line 46, please explain 
why 'it is import ant to assess the quality of life of a ….'  
 
Please add aims of the study at the end of background.  
 
Methods:  
There are not enough information about the study design and methods  
 
please add which year the study was conducted; the period of time the research was conducted?  
 
Please provide more information about recruitment of participants; what were the eligibility 
criteria? who invited women to the study? how many were invited to participate? How many 
agreed and how many declined? Where, when and how data were collected? a postnatal ward, 
postnatal clinic? a survey or interview? It will be helpful to add some information about the 
clinic.  
 
In the abstract, it's mentioned that data were collected 3 or 4 days after birth but no information 
in the methods on the timing of data collection.  
Please add what other information were collected; eg demographic background; birth outcome 
etc. 
Please add what cut -off score of the EPDS was used.  
 
Please explain the reason for collecting the data in early postnatal period (i.e. 3 to 4 days after 
birth); some women might have experienced postpartum blues which occurs in the first 10 days 
after birth.  
 
Page 6 line 17, change '1000' to '100'  
Page 6 l ine 44, delete repeated 'independent factors associated with'  
 
Results:  
overall the results section needs more information on what analysis were conducted before 
describing each finding/ table.  
Please add the range of mother's age (ie min and max age) to the table 1; please also present 
children's number in categories/groups rather than mean and median.  
Page 7 line 2, it will be helpful to add information about 'living in Attica' and what is difference 
between living or not living in Attica.  
Page 7 line 9,  before describing correlations, please provide information on the 
numbers/proportion of women who scored high on the EPDS.  
Results page 7 and table 2, the researcher explored the associations between postpartum 
depression and some background/demographic characteristics; however there are other important 
factors such as birth outcomes (e.g. gestational age, birth weight) which should be considered.  
Page 8 line 9, please add info on how the analysis were conducted and what performed.  
Page 8 line 15, here i s the first time mentioned about the women 'relationship'; data on this 
should be previously included in the table 1 and also some information on how it was measured. 
Similarly, information on 'chronic physical disease' (line 27), how it was defined and me asured 
should be mentioned earlier in the paper.  
 
Table 2, only 2 women had chronic disease which is very small number for conducting the 
analysis  
Page 8 there is no information on how and why analyses were conducted  
 
Table 4, 5 and table 6, 7; it is not  clear why different characteristic/demographic background 
were used in the analysis of these tables; eg why didn't include age, marital status, place of living 
for analysis in table 4? And vice versa.  
 
Page 10 again no description of the process of analysis  
Page 12 line 20, this is the first time mentioned about the 'epidural'; there is no information on 
how many had or didn't (table 1, table 2) and it wasn't used in the previous analysis  
Page 20, some r eferences are not complete, missing journal titles, page numbers etc  
 
Are the methods appropriate and well described?  
If not, pl ease specify what is required in your comments to the authors.  
No 
Does the work include the necessary controls?  
If not, please specify which controls are required in your comments to the authors.  
Unable to assess  
Are the conclusions drawn adequately suppo rted by the data shown?  
If not, please explain in your comments to the authors.  
Unable to assess  
Are you able to assess any statistics in the manuscript or would you recommend an  
additional statistical review?  
If an additional statistical review is recommended, please specify what aspects require further  
assessment in your comments to the editors.  
I am able to assess the statistics  
 
Quality of written English  
Please indicate the quality of language in the manuscript:  
Needs some language corrections before being published  
Declaration of competing interests  
Please c omplete a declaration of competing interests, considering the following questions:  
1. Have you in the past five years received reimbursements, fees, funding, or salary from an  
organisation that may in any way gain or lose financially from the publication o f this  
manuscript, either now or in the future?  
2. Do you hold any stocks or shares in an organisation that may in any way gain or lose  
financially from the publication of this manuscript, either now or in the future?  
3. Do you hold or are you currently ap plying for any patents relating to the content of the  
manuscript?  
4. Have you received reimbursements, fees, funding, or salary from an organization that 
holds  or has applied for patents relating to the content of the manuscript?  
5. Do you have any other f inancial competing interests?  
6. Do you have any non -financial competing interests in relation to this paper?  
If you can answer no to all of the above, write 'I declare that I h ave no competing interests' 
below. If your reply is yes to any, please give details below.  
 
'I declare that I have no competing interests'  
 
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