Accepted for/Published in: JMIR Pediatrics and Parenting
Date Submitted: Sep 20, 2019
Date Accepted: Oct 3, 2020
Warning: This is an author submission that is not peer-reviewed or edited. Preprints - unless they show as "accepted" - should not be relied on to guide clinical practice or health-related behavior and should not be reported in news media as established information.
Digital Methods to Optimize Pregnant Women’s Participation in Longitudinal Research
ABSTRACT
Background:
The scientific and medical communities require advanced study of maternal health and well-being to develop improved outcomes for mothers and their babies but can be challenged measuring mental health during pregnancy and into postpartum due to accessibility and cooperation issues.
Objective:
This work employs digital methods to describe mental health and maternal experience from the first trimester of pregnancy through 3 months postpartum among a cohort similar to the general population of pregnant women in the US. The objective was to collect a data set of longitudinal measures for epidemiologists to develop predictive modeling to determine early in pregnancy which women will develop perinatal depression with a high degree of accuracy.
Methods:
The authors recruited 1,179 pregnant women from BabyCenter.com and followed them with repeated measures using custom, mobile optimized, questionnaires administered online. The authors employed a combination of typical and novel digital strategies to minimize attrition and build trust among participants. In all stages of recruitment, data collection, and participant engagement, the authors adapted their strategies to meet the target audience and leveraged digital means to achieve the final goal.
Results:
Active participants completed 7,757 assessments. These assessments contribute to a robust data set that is enabling predictive models that can identify with a high degree of accuracy women at risk of developing mood disorders before symptoms onset.
Conclusions:
The study’s success at retaining pregnant women through the postpartum period was based on leveraging a platform with an already established reach and trust among the target audience (BabyCenter), and adapting engagement methodologies tailored to the needs of this target audience.
Citation
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Copyright
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