Evaluating Screening Adherence Between Moment for Parents App and Attention Control

Study Summary

Mental health challenges, such as depression and anxiety, are the most common medical complications during pregnancy and after childbirth. Many women experience these symptoms, yet half are never screened, let alone diagnosed. When mental health concerns go unnoticed, they can affect a mother's well-being, her birth experience, and her child's development. When identified early, these conditions are treatable. However, current healthcare practices often fail to screen women consistently, and many women do not feel comfortable discussing emotional struggles with healthcare providers. This study will test whether a mobile app called Moment for Parents can help pregnant and postpartum women complete mental health screenings more regularly. The app includes educational articles, guided reflections, and mood check-ins that help women explore their feelings in a private, supportive environment. The app also includes a chatbot that guides them through short lessons about motherhood, stress, relationships, and emotional well-being. These conversations are designed to feel friendly and relatable, like talking with a knowledgeable companion rather than filling out a medical form. The investigators expect that this more personal experience may make it easier for women to notice and track changes in their mental health and encourage them to complete regular screeners. The study will enroll 160 women who are pregnant or within the first year after giving birth. Participants will be randomly assigned to one of two groups: Intervention group: Uses the full Moment for Parents app, including the interactive chatbot. Control group: Uses a simplified version of the app with weekly articles but no chatbot. Both groups will receive mental health screenings through the app over a 12-week period. These screenings include standard, widely used questionnaires that measure symptoms of depression and anxiety. If a participant's answers show signs of concerning symptoms, such as depressi

Primary Outcome

Mental health screening adherence will be measured as the total number of completed PHQ-9 and GAD-7 screenings delivered through the Moment for Parents app during the 12-week study period. Screening opportunities occur bi-weekly and are recorded passively by the application backend, allowing precise tracking of whether a participant completed each scheduled screening. Adherence will be compared across study arms using count-based analysis methods to determine whether the interactive chatbot incr

Conditions Studied

Interventions

• BEHAVIORAL Perinatal Psychoeducation Articles
• BEHAVIORAL Bi-weekly Perinatal Mental Health Screening
• BEHAVIORAL Chatbot-Guided Journaling
• BEHAVIORAL Perinatal-Focused Meditations
• BEHAVIORAL Themed Perinatal Learning Pathways

Study Locations (1)