Evaluation of Educational Tools Concerning Hypertension in Ambulatory Pregnant Women, Compared With Usual Antenatal Care

Background: Preeclampsia is a leading cause of maternal/fetal morbidity/mortality. Pregnant women are often poorly informed on preeclampsia and seeking care too late results in maternal/fetal complications. Many healthcare providers believe that delivering information for low-risk women only make them more anxious.

Preliminary data: We published that an information pamphlet on preeclampsia increases knowledge, without increasing anxiety, and generates high satisfaction in women hospitalized for preeclampsia.

Objectives: Demonstrate that (1) ambulatory low-risk pregnant women will benefit from the pamphlet/video with improved knowledge; (2) without any increase in anxiety, and with great satisfaction.

Design: Prospective randomized controlled pilot study. Inclusion criteria: consecutive pregnant women aged ≥18 y.o. between 200-326 weeks presenting at the clinic and who read/write French or English. Exclusion criteria: Anticipated delivery or termination within one month. Intervention: pamphlet, magnet and video. Control: no educational tool. At baseline, women in both groups will answer questionnaire #1 on demographics; one month later: self-administered questionnaire #2 on knowledge, anxiety, satisfaction.

Sample size: N=178 will provide 80% power to find a significant improvement of at least 20% in knowledge score and 96% power to find a difference of at least 1 on scale for anxiety (alpha of 5%). Assuming a drop-out rate of 10%, missing answers <20%, and rate of answered questionnaire #2 of 50%, 400 subjects will be recruited.