BMC Public Health 2006, 6:211 http://www.biomedcentral.com/1471-2458/6/211 7.8, df = 4, p = 0.1). There was a very small and marginally non-significant, negative effect of the time that had elapsed since screening (slope -0.003, p = 0.06). This sug- gested that, if anything, the more recently women had been screened the more comfortable they rated their expe- rience of filling out the EPDS. Desirability of screening The survey sought women's opinions on screening by ask- ing, "Do you think it is a good idea to screen all new mothers for postnatal depression?" Of 478 women who replied to this question, 462 answered affirmatively i.e. they indi- cated that screening was "a good idea". For the purpose of logistic regression, the three possible responses (Yes, No, Not Sure) were collapsed into a binary variable with 'Yes' coded as 1 and with 'No' and 'Not Sure' both coded as 0. There were no effects of EPDS score itself (Odds Ratio = 0.97, 95% CI 0.88–1.07, p = 0.58) and the frequency of responses was unaffected by whether women had a DSM- IV diagnosis of depression (χ2 = 0.98, df = 1, p = 0.32). There was no effect of maternal age (OR = 1.07, 95% CI 0.94–1.22, p = 0.32). Similarly, neither infant age at the time of screening nor the length of time elapsed since screening, exerted any effect on whether women thought screening was a good idea (ORs of 1.02 and 1.0, p = 0.57 and p = 0.82 respectively). There was no effect of the method by which women were surveyed: postal, face-to- face and telephone methods all gave the same result (χ2= 1.8, df = 2, p = 0.45). Finally, the reported comfort level of respondents con- nected with completing the EPDS was not itself measura- bly related to their opinion on the desirability of universal screening (OR = 1.34, 95% CI 0.82–2.18, p = 0.24). Category Screening was easy/good/fine Screening was helpful It was a relief to be screened I felt my problem was being understood I thought the screening questions were important and/or relevant The screening raised my awareness of depression Screening made me realise how I was coping Screening was confronting/intimidating Screening allowed me to reflect on my own mood Screening highlighted the importance of being in contact with my nurse The screening questions were not too personal Screening was a little uncomfortable Screening was a good idea I wanted to know if I was at risk of PND The screening questionnaire was administered in an unhelpful manner Table 1: Common Responses. Tabulated values are the frequencies (number of occurrences in 89 transcripts examined) of common categories of response to the survey question, "What was it like to answer that questionnaire (the EPDS)?" Women's open-ended responses about the EPDS The survey asked women "What was it like to answer that questionnaire (the EPDS)?" A total of 39 categories of response were identified after the emergent coding of 89 transcripts by two independent coders. Table 1 provides a summary of the commonest categories. Briefly, the broad nature of these data is as follows. Twenty four of the 39 categories occurred only once (i.e. they were each unique to a particular woman). Among the 15 that emerged for more than one individual (Table 1) a single category accounted for more than 50% of all occurrences, namely "Screening was easy/good/fine". Both independent coders and the senior author (JM) reached a consensus that 12 of the 89 transcripts exam- ined were 'not codeable' in terms of positive, neutral or negative tone:- seven because they had no comment at all and a further five because they did not constitute a clear, coherent response relating to the actual question (e.g. one woman wrote "Had done one 2 weeks ago" and another wrote "Difficult to look past how I was feeling at the time"). Of the 77 transcripts that could be readily coded for affec- tive tone, 61 were positive in tone, 5 were neutral and 11 were negative. Of 52 transcripts from women with a DSM- IV diagnosis 37, 4, 2 and 9 were positive, negative, neutral and not codeable respectively. Similarly, of 37 transcripts from women without a DSM-IV diagnosis 24, 7, 3 and 3 were positive, negative, neutral and not codeable. There were no systematic differences in either response rate to this question or in affective tone between women diag- nosed and women not diagnosed with depression (χ2 = 4.4, df = 3, p = 0.22) respectively. However, women sur- veyed by telephone were more likely to have a positive tone in their open-ended responses (χ2 = 6.26, df = 2, p = 0.044) than those surveyed face-to-face or by post. This coding was collapsed to a binary format (positive versus Frequency 50 5 5 5 4 4 4 3 3 3 2 2 2 2 2 Page 5 of 8 (page number not for citation purposes)