Educational Intervention to Enhance Postpartum Depression Literacy: A Regional Study among Pregnant Women in Eastern Iran

Articles in Press

Document Type : Original Article

Authors

1 Student Research Committee, Birjand University of Medical Sciences, Birjand, Iran.

2 Department of Epidemiology and Biostatistics, School of Health, Social determinants of health research center, Birjand University of Medical Sciences, Birjand, Iran.

3 Department of Health Education and Promotion, School of Health, Social determinants of health research center, Birjand University of Medical Sciences, Birjand, Iran.

4 Department of Public Health, School of Health, Social Determinants of Health Research Center, Birjand University of Medical Sciences, Birjand, Iran

Abstract

Background and Objective: Improving mental health literacy is a major strategy for reducing the burden of mental health disorders. Mental health literacy of postpartum depression is defined as knowledge and beliefs about postpartum depression that help recognize, control, or prevent it. The present study aimed to explore the effect of an educational intervention on improving mental health literacy of postpartum depression in pregnant women in eastern Iran.

Material and Methods: The present quasi-experimental study was conducted on pregnant women in Sarayan city. The data collection instrument was a standard mental health literacy questionnaire on postpartum depression. Sixty pregnant women who met the inclusion criteria were selected from healthcare centers, and were randomly divided into an intervention and a control group. The educational intervention was held in six 45-minute educational sessions for the intervention group. The questionnaire was completed before the intervention and one month after childbirth by the intervention and control groups. The data were entered into SPSS18 and analyzed at a significance level of 0.05.

Results: Before the intervention, the two groups did not have a statistically significant difference in terms of the mean score of mental health literacy along different dimensions (p>0.05). However, the mean scores of all dimensions of mental health literacy (i.e., Ability to recognize postpartum depression, Knowledge of risk factors and causes, Knowledge and beliefs of self-care activities, Knowledge about professional help available, Beliefs about professional help available, Attitudes which facilitate recognition of postpartum depression and appropriate help-seeking and Knowledge of how to seek information related to postpartum depression) increased significantly in the intervention group one month after childbirth compared to the pretest (p<0.05).

Conclusion: Based on results of this study, educational interventions have the potential to improve mental health literacy of postpartum depression. Current evidence is limited by few studies directly measured postpartum depression literacy.  More research is needed to properly assess the effect of health literacy interventions on mental health literacy of pregnant women. 

Keywords

Acknowledgments: The researchers express their gratitude to the Vice-Chancellor of Research of Birjand University of Medical Sciences for their financial support, and the cooperation of all participants and the staff of health care centers in Birjand.


Availability of data and materials: Upon request to the corresponding author.


Conflicts of interest: The authors declare that they have no competing interests.


Consent for publication: Not applicable.


Ethical approval and consent to participate: The present study was approved by Birjand University of Medical Sciences with an ethical code of IR.BUMS.REC.1401.313. All procedures also was in accordance with the 1964 Helsinki Declaration and its later amendments. All information about participants was kept confidential by the researchers and participation in the study was quite voluntary.


Funding: This study was supported by grants from the Birjand University of Medical Science, Iran.


Authors’ contribution: Conceptualization: Maryam Khani, Hamid Salehiniya, Ensiyeh Norozi. Data curation: Ensiyeh Norozi, Hamid Salehiniya. Data collection: Maryam Khani. Data analysis: Dr Salehnia. Methodology: Mrs Khani and Dr Salehnia. Supervision: Dr Miri. Writing–original draft: Maryam Khani, Hamid Salehiniya, Mohammad Reza Miri, Ensiyeh Norozi. All authors read and approved the final manuscript.

 

Open Access Policy: This is an open access article under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits use, distribution and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.To view a copy of this licence, visit https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/

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Journal of Health Literacy

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Available Online from 08 October 2025

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