Women's Preferences and Design Recommendations for a Postpartum Depression Psychoeducation Intervention: User...

Area of Science:

• Maternal Health
• Mental Health Technology
• eHealth Interventions

Background:

• Postpartum depression (PPD) affects up to 18% of Canadian new mothers, contributing significantly to maternal morbidity.
• Barriers such as location and cost limit access to traditional PPD care.
• eHealth interventions offer a promising solution to improve access and affordability of PPD care.

Purpose of the Study:

• To determine content and design preferences of women with a history of PPD.
• To inform the development of a web-enabled intervention for PPD education and management.

Main Methods:

• Developed webpage prototypes based on focus group findings.
• Recruited women diagnosed with PPD for feedback.
• Collected data via semistructured interviews and online surveys using qualitative and quantitative methods.

Main Results:

• Six key themes emerged: layout efficacy, information highlighting, language clarity, support group access, validation/immediate help, and resource accessibility.
• Most participants favored foundational PPD knowledge (symptoms, management).
• Prototypes were generally perceived as understandable, clear, trustworthy, and helpful.

Conclusions:

• Identified six critical areas for web-enabled PPD psychoeducation programs.
• Web-enabled programs are supported for PPD management as adjuncts to existing treatments.