Women’s Preferences and Design Recommendations for a Postpartum Depression Psychoeducation Intervention: User Involvement Study

BACKGROUND: Postpartum depression (PPD) is one of the leading causes of maternal morbidity, affecting up to 18% of Canadian new mothers. Yet, PPD often remains untreated due to numerous barriers in access to care, including location and cost. Development of eHealth interventions in collaboration with patient partners offers an exciting opportunity to fill this care gap and provide effective and affordable care to new parents across British Columbia. OBJECTIVE: Our aim was to determine the content and design preferences of women previously diagnosed with PPD to inform changes to the development of a web-enabled intervention for education and management of PPD. METHODS: Webpage prototypes were created to mimic the web-enabled resource using findings from completed focus group research that assessed what women want in a web-enabled support resource for PPD. A convenience sample of women aged >18 years and previously diagnosed with PPD was recruited. Feedback was collected on the content and design of the prototypes via semistructured interviews and online surveys. Qualitative, inductive analytic, and quantitative methods were used. RESULTS: A total of 9 women (mean age 37.2 years, SD 4.8 years) completed the interview and a majority of the survey. The following 6 themes were identified: (1) inefficacy of text-heavy layouts, (2) highlighting key information, (3) clarity/understandability of the language, (4) finding support groups, (5) validation and immediate help for feelings of isolation, and (6) helpfulness and accessibility of the resource. Each theme identified elements of content or design that were either effective or may be improved upon. Most women (8/9, 89%) favored content relating to foundational knowledge of PPD, such as symptoms and management options. The layout, language, and content were found to be generally easy to understand, clear, trustworthy, and helpful. CONCLUSIONS: Six key areas were identified by women previously diagnosed with PPD, as requiring focus in a web-enabled psychoeducation program. Consistent with past research, this study also found that support and enthusiasm for web-enabled programs support PPD management as an adjunct to other evidence-based treatments.