MedPath

MoodUP in Improving Psychological Outcomes Among Perinatal Women

Not Applicable
Completed
Conditions
Prenatal Stress
Sleep Disturbance
Pregnancy Related
Anxiety
Perinatal Depression
Interventions
Behavioral: Internet-based Cognitive Behavioural Therapy
Other: Usual Care
Registration Number
NCT03970057
Lead Sponsor
National University of Singapore
Brief Summary

Dramatic physiological, psychological, and social changes during the antenatal period may significantly affect a woman's psychosocial and physical conditions, thereby resulting in stress, anxiety, and depressive symptoms. Cognitive behavior therapy (CBT) is a well-established effective psychotherapy to modify thoughts, beliefs, and perceptions, as well as change the behavioral patterns under numerous conditions. However, at-risk women that need access to CBT are challenged by many issues, such as insufficient therapists, stigmatization, long waiting times, and high costs. Preventive strategies may offer a more acceptable means of addressing the problem. Internet-based CBT can help overcome some barriers to improve psychological well-being by providing a timely and efficacious intervention that is customizable, cost-effective, and flexible in terms of time and geography.

Hypotheses Compared with the control group,

1. Women who completed an internet-based CBT (MoodUP) will have significantly lower scores for stress, anxiety, and depressive symptoms immediately post-intervention and at 12 weeks post-intervention;

2. Women who completed MoodUP will reduce the frequency of negative automatic thoughts, achieve a better sleep quality, life satisfaction, and mental health immediately post-intervention and at 12 weeks post-intervention;

3. Women who completed MoodUP will have better client satisfaction.

Approach A two-stage research design will be used for 3 years. Stage I will consist of the development and validation of MoodUP based on theoretical and empirical rationales. The development of MoodUP will be guided by a combination of the basic principles from behavioral and cognitive psychology. Essential components, teaching strategies, and technical elements of MoodUP will be established according to literature review and a meta-analysis by the principal investigator and her team. Ethical and quality standards will be assessed using the Health on the Net code of conduct and the Health-Related Website Evaluation Form, respectively.

Stage II will be used to evaluate the efficacy of MoodUP among 143 antenatal women using a randomized controlled trial, two-armed parallel group pretest, and repeated post-test following the Consolidated Standards of Report Trials guidelines for an internet-based intervention. Primary outcomes will be the presence and severity of antenatal stress, anxiety, and depressive symptoms using the 21-item Depression Anxiety Stress Scale. Secondary outcomes will be automatic thoughts, sleep disturbance, life satisfaction, mental well-being, and client satisfaction, as determined by the 30-item Automatic Thoughts Questionnaires, four-item Sleep Disturbance subscale of the Medical Outcomes Study Sleep Scale, the five-item Satisfaction with Life Scale, the WHO five-item Well-Being Index, and the seven-item Client Satisfaction Questionnaire, respectively. Multivariate analysis of variance with repeated measures will be used to compare the mean difference of scores in the three-time points through Wilks's lambda test. The data will be analyzed according to the intention-to-treat principle with baseline values imputed for missing follow-up data.

Detailed Description

Not available

Recruitment & Eligibility

Status
COMPLETED
Sex
Female
Target Recruitment
368
Inclusion Criteria
  • < 18 weeks of gestation (the upper limit of < 18 weeks allows time to complete six sessions and follow-up questionnaires prior to delivery)
  • 21 years of age or older
  • ability to speak and read English
  • plan to deliver baby in Singapore
  • can access the internet.
Exclusion Criteria
  • severe psychiatric illness
  • severe medical complications
  • severe obstetric complications
  • fetal abnormality.

Study & Design

Study Type
INTERVENTIONAL
Study Design
PARALLEL
Arm && Interventions
GroupInterventionDescription
MoodUPInternet-based Cognitive Behavioural Therapy-
HealthyMUMUsual Care-
Primary Outcome Measures
NameTimeMethod
Antenatal Stress2 years

The DASS-21 is used to rate the frequency and severity of experiencing negative emotions over the previous week (P. F. Lovibond \& S. H. Lovibond, 1995).

Each of the three DASS-21 scales contains 7 item, divided into sub-scales of stress, anxiety and depressive symptoms (S. H. Lovibond \& P. F. Lovibond, 1995).

Frequency/severity ratings are made on a series of four-point scales from 0 (did not apply to me at all) to 3 (applied to me very much or most of the time).

Scores of each sub-scales will be multiplied by 2 to calculate the final score. The total score ranges of each sub-scales from 0 to 42, and a high score on each sub-scale indicates more stress, anxiety and depression.

Antenatal Depressive Symptoms2 years

The DASS-21 is used to rate the frequency and severity of experiencing negative emotions over the previous week (P. F. Lovibond \& S. H. Lovibond, 1995).

Each of the three DASS-21 scales contains 7 item, divided into sub-scales of stress, anxiety and depressive symptoms (S. H. Lovibond \& P. F. Lovibond, 1995).

Frequency/severity ratings are made on a series of four-point scales from 0 (did not apply to me at all) to 3 (applied to me very much or most of the time).

Scores of each sub-scales will be multiplied by 2 to calculate the final score. The total score ranges of each sub-scales from 0 to 42, and a high score on each sub-scale indicates more stress, anxiety and depression.

Antenatal Anxiety2 years

The DASS-21 is used to rate the frequency and severity of experiencing negative emotions over the previous week (P. F. Lovibond \& S. H. Lovibond, 1995).

Each of the three DASS-21 scales contains 7 item, divided into sub-scales of stress, anxiety and depressive symptoms (S. H. Lovibond \& P. F. Lovibond, 1995).

Frequency/severity ratings are made on a series of four-point scales from 0 (did not apply to me at all) to 3 (applied to me very much or most of the time).

Scores of each sub-scales will be multiplied by 2 to calculate the final score. The total score ranges of each sub-scales from 0 to 42, and a high score on each sub-scale indicates more stress, anxiety and depression.

Secondary Outcome Measures
NameTimeMethod
5-item Life satisfaction2 years

Measured through The Satisfaction with Life Scale (SWLS) (Diener, Emmons, Larsen, \& Griffin, 1985).

The five-item Satisfaction with Life Scale (SWLS) is used to assess life satisfaction of the women.

Women will rate each item on a seven-point Likert scale from 1 (strongly disagree) to 7 (strongly agree). The total score ranges from 5 to 35, and a high score on SWLS indicates high life satisfaction.

7-item Client satisfaction2 years

Measured through a self-developed questionnaire to evaluate the clients' satisfaction of website.

Client Satisfaction Questionnaire (CSQ) is developed by our research team. Each item is rated on a four-point Likert scale from 1 to 4, and response options differed for the various items. The total score ranges from 7 to 28, and a high score represents better client satisfaction. In addition, we have four open questions to obtain suggestions for improvement.

30-item Automatic Thoughts2 years

Measured through Automatic Thoughts Questionnaire. The Automatic Thought Questionnaire (ATQ) is used to measure the occurrence of negative thoughts and related cognitive processes (Hollon \& Kendall, 1980).

It consisted of 30 statements reflecting negative cognition (Hollon \& Kendall, 1980). Respondents are asked to rate the frequency at which each self-statement or a similar self-statement occurred over the course of the past week.

The responses are provided on a 5-point scale from 1 (not at all) to 5 (all the time) in order to determine the severity of symptoms. The total score ranges from 30 to 150. A high scores represents more frequent negative thoughts and cognition (Hollon \& Kendall, 1980).

Four-item Sleep Disturbance subscale2 years

Measure through Medical Outcomes Study Sleep Scale (MOSSS). The four-item sleep disturbance sub-scale of the Medical Outcomes Study Sleep Scale (Hays et al., 2005) is used to assess how well women sleep without tapping into other sleep-related medical conditions.

Three items related to sleep disturbance are rated on a six-point Likert scale, from 1 (less than 15 minutes) to 6 (none of the time), and one item related to the time needed to fall asleep is assessed on a five-point Likert scale, from 1 (less than 15 minutes) to 5 (more than 60 minutes). Scores are converted to an index that ranged from 0 to 100, with high scores indicating a high level of sleep disturbance.

5-item Mental well-being2 years

Measured through the WHO Well-Being Index (WHOWBI) (Bech, 2012; World Health Organization, 1998).

The WHO five-item Well-Being Index is used to measure overall mental well-being. Each item is rated on a six-point Likert scale from 0 (at no time) to 5 (all of the time). The total score ranges from 0 to 25, and a high score represents better well-being.

Trial Locations

Locations (1)

Cherry

🇸🇬

Singapore, Singapore

© Copyright 2025. All Rights Reserved by MedPath