Estimation of postpartum depression risk from electronic health records using machine learning

BACKGROUND: Postpartum depression is a widespread disorder, adversely affecting the well-being of mothers and their newborns. We aim to utilize machine learning for predicting risk of postpartum depression (PPD) using primary care electronic health records (EHR) data, and to evaluate the potential value of EHR-based prediction in improving the accuracy of PPD screening and in early identification of women at risk. METHODS: We analyzed EHR data of 266,544 women from the UK who gave first live birth between 2000 and 2017. We extracted a multitude of socio-demographic and medical variables and constructed a machine learning model that predicts the risk of PPD during the year following childbirth. We evaluated the model’s performance using multiple validation methodologies and measured its accuracy as a stand-alone tool and as an adjunct to the standard questionnaire-based screening by Edinburgh postnatal depression scale (EPDS). RESULTS: The prevalence of PPD in the analyzed cohort was 13.4%. Combing EHR-based prediction with EPDS score increased the area under the receiver operator characteristics curve (AUC) from 0.805 to 0.844 and the sensitivity from 0.72 to 0.76, at specificity of 0.80. The AUC of the EHR-based prediction model alone varied from 0.72 to 0.74 and decreased by only 0.01–0.02 when applied as early as before the beginning of pregnancy. CONCLUSIONS: PPD risk prediction using EHR data may provide a complementary quantitative and objective tool for PPD screening, allowing earlier (pre-pregnancy) and more accurate identification of women at risk, timely interventions and potentially improved outcomes for the mother and child. SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1186/s12884-021-04087-8.