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Nasrin, Shamima

University of British Columbia

Background: In high income countries, up to 26.7% of pregnant women report depressive symptoms. Depression in pregnancy is associated with poor maternal health behaviours, adverse birth outcomes, and child obesity at 2 years of age. Over the last decade, mobile health modalities providing information on mental health, including depression, have become more commonly used during the postpartum period. Although studies suggest that text messaging programs which provide relevant information about depression can effectively reduce the severity of depression by encouraging healthy behavioural changes during the postpartum period, their effectiveness has not been evaluated during pregnancy. Objectives: This study aimed to (a) compare changes in scores on the Edinburgh Postnatal Depression Scale (EPDS) over the course of pregnancy among women enrolled in a text messaging program (SmartMom) that sent three text messages each week on a variety of topics including mental health and substance use; (b) compare changes in EPDS scores at 38 weeks of pregnancy between high and low message use; and (c) compare changes in the severity of depression between women who subscribed to an additional supplemental stream of messages related to depression and those who did not subscribe. Method: A prospective cohort study was conducted among 2,301 pregnant women living in British Columbia, Canada. Pregnant women whose scores on the EPDS were 9 or higher at enrollment were included in the study. Results: 97 women met inclusion criteria. Bivariate modeling demonstrated a reduction in EPDS scores at 38 weeks of pregnancy compared to at enrollment. Multivariate modeling revealed that different markers of SmartMom messages use were associated with a reduction in EPDS scores, including onset of receiving text messages, reading text messages, learning new information, and whether one would recommend the SmartMom program to a friend. Linear regression analysis showed that subscription to a depression stream did not significantly alter change scores in EPDS score. Conclusions: A prenatal education program delivered by text messaging with information about depression may be effective in reducing depressive symptoms among pregnant women. Our findings suggest that health care authorities should consider adding a text messaging program to their prenatal education resources.

Text

2024-12-20

Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International

http://hdl.handle.net/2429/89973

Population and Public Health

University of British Columbia

UBCV

http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/