Feasibility of an evidence-based educational intervention in screening immigrant mothers for postpartum depression: A pretest-posttest experimental design

Abstract

Background: Screening immigrant mothers for postpartum depression has been shown to be challenging for health care professionals in handling cultural implications of postpartum depression, communicating through interpreter and applying translated versions of the screening scale.

Aim: The aim of the study was to test the feasibility of an evidence-based educational intervention for Child Health Services nurses in screening non-native-speaking immigrant mothers for postpartum depression.

Ethics: The approval was obtained from Swedish Ethical Review Authority, 2018/1063.

Method: Thirty Child Health Services nurses who conducted screening with assistance of interpreter at least three times per year participated. The study was registered at ClinicalTrials.gov (NCT04167709) and a one-group pretest-posttest experimental design was applied. Data on the participants' acceptability and response to outcomes of the intervention were collected by an evaluation questionnaire, the Clinical Cultural Competency Training Questionnaire, the General Self-efficacy Scale and by self-reported data on general performance of the task. Descriptive statistics were used to present the results of the evaluation questionnaire and general performance of the task. Paired t-test were used to compare the scores on the General Self-efficacy scale, while Wilcoxon signed-ranked test was used to compare the scores on the Clinical Cultural Competency Training Questionnaire. Qualitative data were analysed by content analysis.

Results: All 30 participants stated that they found the content of the intervention satisfying. The intervention was shown to provide new knowledge and improved their ability to meet the requirements linked to the screening procedure. The intervention affected their self-estimated cultural competence in some aspects but not their self-efficacy or general performance of the task.

Conclusions: The intervention was found feasible but require adjustment in the design of the practical training sessions. The use of the provided material, a comic strip on parental support and interpreter information needs further evaluation.

Keywords: baby well clinic; feasibility study; interpreter; maternal mental health; medical research council's framework for complex interventions; migrant; nursing; postnatal depression.