Effectiveness of mobile-based intervention Self-care for Pregnant Women at Work: A randomized controlled trial

Abstract

Objectives: While the number of employed women has increased worldwide, they still have difficulties in practicing prenatal care at work. Previous studies have found that smartphone-based prenatal education has increased access to healthcare and contributed to improving pregnant women's health. The objective of this study was to evaluate the effectiveness of a mobile-based intervention—Self-care for Pregnant Women at Work (SPWW)—in enhancing the self-care practices of pregnant women who work. Methods: A randomized repeated measures design was used in the study. The 126 women were randomly assigned to either an intervention group that used the SPWW mobile application for 4weeks or a control group that used an application that only had surveys. Both groups completed surveys at preintervention, week 2, and week 4 of their participation in the study. The primary study variables were work stress, pregnancy stress, fear of childbirth, pregnancy experience, and health practices in pregnancy. Results: A total of 116 participants' data (60 in the intervention group and 56 in the control group) were analyzed. Significant group-by-time interaction effects were noted for pregnancy stress, pregnancy hassles, and health practices in pregnancy. The effect size of the intervention was small to medium for pregnancy stress (d=−0.425), pregnancy uplifts (d=0.333), pregnancy hassles (d=−0.599), and health practices in pregnancy (d=0.490). Conclusions: A mobile-based intervention using a comprehensive health application is effective in pregnant women at work. Developing educational content and methods targeted at this population would be helpful.