A Mobile Application for Monitoring and Management of Depressed Mood in a Vulnerable Pregnant Population.

OBJECTIVE This study tested whether a mood tracking and alert (MTA) mobile application (app) improved mental health care delivery in a high-risk obstetric population. METHODS Pregnant women with depressive symptomatology at <32 weeks gestation were followed for eight weeks after randomization to a control patient portal (PP) app alone or with the MTA app. The MTA app monitored activity, assessed mood, and alerted obstetric providers of signs of worsening mood. RESULTS Seventy-two women enrolled (PP, N=24; MTA, N=48). MTA users had significantly more contacts addressing mental health, and as gestational age increased, they rated ability to manage their own health significantly better than women in the control group. Women who received telephone contact from a provider triggered by an MTA app alert were significantly more likely to receive a mental health specialist referral. CONCLUSIONS A mobile MTA app improved service delivery and patient engagement among patients with perinatal depression symptoms.

[1]  A. Zaslavsky,et al.  Diagnostic Validity of the Generalized Anxiety Disorder - 7 (GAD-7) among Pregnant Women , 2015, PloS one.

[2]  R. Spitzer,et al.  The PHQ-9: validity of a brief depression severity measure. , 2001, Journal of general internal medicine.

[3]  Yoshimi Fukuoka,et al.  mHealth Physical Activity Intervention: A Randomized Pilot Study in Physically Inactive Pregnant Women , 2016, Maternal and Child Health Journal.

[4]  Ian M. Bennett,et al.  “One end has nothing to do with the other:” Patient attitudes regarding help seeking intention for depression in gynecologic and obstetric settings , 2009, Archives of Women's Mental Health.

[5]  Ian M. Bennett,et al.  Distinct trajectories of perinatal depressive symptomatology: evidence from growth mixture modeling. , 2008, American journal of epidemiology.

[6]  Satish Iyengar,et al.  A meta-analysis of depression during pregnancy and the risk of preterm birth, low birth weight, and intrauterine growth restriction. , 2010, Archives of general psychiatry.

[7]  J. Car,et al.  Mobile phone messaging for facilitating self-management of long-term illnesses. , 2012, The Cochrane database of systematic reviews.

[8]  Ralph Maddison,et al.  Testing the feasibility of a mobile technology intervention promoting healthy gestational weight gain in pregnant women (txt4two) - study protocol for a randomised controlled trial , 2015, Trials.

[9]  W. Katon,et al.  Depression Screening Attitudes and Practices Among Obstetrician–Gynecologists , 2003, Obstetrics and gynecology.

[10]  C. Epperson,et al.  Elevated risk of adverse obstetric outcomes in pregnant women with depression , 2013, Archives of Women's Mental Health.

[11]  A. Milén,et al.  Improvement of maternal health services through the use of mobile phones , 2011, Tropical medicine & international health : TM & IH.