Evaluation of Educational Tools for Pregnant Women

Overview

Hypertensive disorders of pregnancy happen in 5% of pregnancies. Being aware of symptoms and complications may help women to present early and preserve their own and their baby's health. The proposed research aims to evaluate the impact of educational tools in pregnant women from an ambulatory population. These tools include a detailed pamphlet (including a graphic-based summary), a magnet summarizing symptoms and appropriate action, and a video. Level of knowledge will be evaluated after one month with a validated questionnaire. We will also evaluate if getting more information about preeclampsia increases patient anxiety as well as satisfaction about the tools.

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. Anticipated results: The tools will improve knowledge by about 20% in intervention group compared to control group. They will not increase anxiety over one point and will be highly appreciated by women.