The Mediating Effect of TCM Constitutional Between Postpartum Depression and Social Support

The Mediating Effect of TCM Constitutional Between Postpartum Depression and Social Support

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to verify the correlation among TCM constitution, postpartum depression, and social support. Design/Methodology/Approach – The study was conducted at the Hefei Hospital of Traditional Chinese Medicine, Hefei City, Anhui Province, China. The survey gathered data on biosocial characteristics, the Edinburgh Postnatal Depression Scale, the Social Support Rating Scale, and the Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) constitution from 283 pregnant women. Findings – The study discovered that the prevalence of postpartum depression is 35%. Risk factors for postpartum depression include ‘impact on career’ and postpartum health status. The difference in postpartum depression scores between different biased constitutions was statistically significant (F = 5.91, p<0.001). The study found negative correlations between social support and both postpartum depression (r = -2.283, p<0.01) and qi depression (r = -0.171, p<0.01). Additionally, there was a positive correlation between qi depression and postpartum depression (r = 0.544, p<0.01), with qi depression playing a partial mediating role between postpartum depression and social support. Research Implications – According to the constitution theory of traditional Chinese medicine, personalized social support is provided to reduce the incidence and severity of postpartum depression and improve the quality of life of postpartum women.