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Fidelity Assessment of Peer-Delivered Cognitive-Behavioral Therapy for Postpartum Depression
Zoryana Babiy1, Donya Merza1, Haley Layton1
1Neuroscience Graduate Program (Babiy, Merza), Health Research Methodology Graduate Program (Layton), and Department of Psychiatry and Behavioural Neurosciences (Bieling, Van Lieshout), McMaster University, Hamilton, Ontario, Canada.
Objective:
Fidelity assessment of peer-administered interventions (PAIs) by expert therapists can be costly and limit scalability. This study's objective was to determine whether peer facilitators could assess the fidelity of peer-delivered group cognitive-behavioral therapy (CBT) for postpartum depression as effectively as an expert psychiatrist or a trained graduate student.
Methods:
Intervention adherence and competence were assessed by three peers (N=9 sessions) and by one expert psychiatrist and one graduate student (N=18 sessions). Interrater reliability was assessed with intraclass correlation coefficients (ICCs).
Results:
ICCs were good to excellent (0.88-0.98) for adherence and competence ratings among the three types of raters (psychiatrist vs. peers, psychiatrist vs. student, and student vs. peers).
Conclusions:
Trained peers may be able to reliably rate the fidelity of a PAI for postpartum depression. This preliminary study represents the first step toward peer-led feedback as an alternative to expert-led supervision of peer-delivered group CBT for postpartum depression.
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