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

Abstract

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 4 weeks 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.