The development of the postpartum mobile support application and the effect of the application on mothers' anxiety and depression symptoms

Abstract

Objective: The study aimed to develop the postpartum mobile support application to support postpartum mothers and to examine the effects of the use of mobile app on mothers' anxiety level and depression symptoms.

Research design/setting: It is a parallel group pretest-posttest randomized controlled study carried out between July 2017 and February 2020. The mothers (62 in the experiment and 62 in the control group) who gave birth in full-term at a university hospital in Konya province in Turkey and who had healthy newborns constituted the study group. Data were collected using the Information Form, the STAI State and Continuity Anxiety Scale, and the Edinburgh Postpartum Depression Scale. Mixed pattern variance analysis (mixed anova), t test in dependent groups, t test and chi square analysis in independent groups were used to analyze the data.

Findings: Most of the mothers who used the application fed their baby only with breast milk and felt more sufficient about breastfeeding. The depression symptoms of mothers using the postpartum mobile support application was lower than that of the mothers in the control group; however, it was found that the application was not adequate alone to decrease anxiety levels and depression symptoms (p > 0.05).

Conclusions: The postpartum mobile support application is an important and useful source in accessing reliable information; however, it was found to be insufficient to lower anxiety levels and prevent depression symptoms at the end of the six-week postpartum period.

Trial registration: ClinicalTrials.gov NCT03415321.

Keywords: Anxiety; Depression; Mobile apps; Postpartum.