Comprehensive intervention during pregnancy based on short message service to prevent or alleviate depression in pregnant women: A quasi-experimental study

Aim Women have an increased risk for developing depression during pregnancy, and depression has a serious negative impact on the mother and infant. This study explored the effectiveness and feasibility of a comprehensive intervention based on using a short message service (SMS) to reduce depressive symptoms and prevent depression during pregnancy. Methods This quasi-experimental study was conducted in three public hospitals with similar levels of care and maternal origin in Jiangmen City, Guangdong Province. One of the three hospitals was randomly selected as the intervention hospital, and the others were control hospitals. There were 4501 pregnant women who participated in this study. Pregnant women in the intervention group received a comprehensive intervention based on SMS after enrollment. Data were collected using questionnaires from August 2016 to August 2018. Results After the intervention, the Edinburgh Postnatal Depression Scale scores of the intervention group were lower than those of the control group (intervention group: 3.9 +/- 3.9, control group: 5.2 +/- 4.3, P < .001), and the proportion of subjects with positive depression screening results in the intervention group was also significantly lower than that in the control group (intervention group: 9.0%, control group: 16.1%, P < .001). Moreover, compared with women in the intervention group, women in the control group who did not receive the intervention were more likely to be positive for depression in the third trimester (AOR = 2.04, 95% CI = 1.62-2.58). Conclusions The SMS-based comprehensive intervention used in this study can effectively alleviate depressive symptoms and reduce the risk of depression during pregnancy.