JMIR Publications

ABSTRACT

Background:

Prenatal anxiety affects between 20 and 30% of pregnant people and is associated with adverse prenatal health conditions, birth outcomes, and postpartum mental health challenges. Individuals from racial and ethnic minority groups, sexual and gender minority groups and those with low income are all at heightened risk for prenatal anxiety due to disproportionate exposure to adverse social determinants of health. Digital Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (dCBT) has been shown to reliably reduce anxiety in mostly white and middle- to higher income samples, but its efficacy in low-income and marginalized pregnant people is understudied.

Objective:

We propose a randomized controlled trial of a dCBT (Daylight app, Big Health, Ltd) in a sample of low-income pregnant people oversampled for racial, ethnic, sexual and gender minority identity.

Methods:

Participants (n=132) will be randomized to the intervention or waitlist control group using a 1:1 allocation ratio. The intervention will be a self-guided app that employs a virtual therapist to teach and encourage practice of four key cognitive (e.g., identifying catastrophic thinking) and behavioral (e.g., increasing physical relaxation) CBT skills that can reduce anxiety. The primary outcome will be generalized anxiety symptoms; secondary outcomes will include depressive symptoms, stress, pregnancy specific anxiety and insomnia symptoms. Focus groups with a subset of participants will provide qualitative data about the acceptability of dCBT.

Results:

Recruitment began in June 2024. Data will be analyzed using linear mixed models which will be fit with treatment condition (dCBT and waitlist control group) as the between subjects factor, time (baseline-, 3-, 6- and 10-weeks post-randomization) as a within subjects factor and a group by time interaction. LMMs produce unbiased parameter estimates in situations where there are different numbers of observations per record and will accomodate intent to treat and sensitivity analyses.

Conclusions:

This clinical trial will evaluate the efficacy and acceptability of a self-guided dCBT for prenatal anxiety among low-income and marginalized pregnant people, a group that continues to experience substantial barriers accessing in-person evidence-based psychotherapy. Clinical Trial: ClinicalTrials.gov NCT06404450; https://clinicaltrials.gov/ct2/show/NCT06404450