PICOT: For pregnant patients, during weeks 38-40 of gestation, does screening for depression with the Edinburgh Postpartum Depression Scale, compared to current practice (postpartum period only), impact earlier identification and referrals to counseling in 8-10 weeks?

Describe your plan for data analysis and how you will evaluate your project outcome:

Providing referrals in the prenatal period for patients at higher risk of suffering from PPD is an intervention appropriate to implement during or after the second trimester (Curry et al., 2019). Recognizing timely treatment will allow patients and providers to reduce the incidence and severity of postpartum depression (Martin et al., 2020). An increase in referrals to mental health counseling is an indicator of the project's success.

The evaluation tool used to collect data for my project was a self-developed spreadsheet. The type of data produced by the evaluation tool will be nominal. Alpha will be 0.05. A small p-value (typically ≤ 0.05) indicates strong evidence against the null hypothesis and rejects it. A significant p-value (> 0.05) indicates weak evidence against the null hypothesis and fails to leave it. The pre-and post-intervention groups will be independent; they contain separate participants. The grouping variable (pre-and post-intervention) is nominal in the level of data. The purpose is to see a relationship between the intervention and screening and the intervention and referrals. The grouping variable and two outcome variables are also nominal. The DNP student will present two cross-tabulation tables, two chi-square tables, and two graphs representing the two cross-tabulation tables. The best test for this analysis is the Two Chi-Square Tests of Independence. The chi-square tests a variety of sizes of contingency tables often referred to as r x c contingency tables. This test is called the chi-square test of independence, but it is also known as the chi-square test for association. 

Reference:

Curry, S., Krist, A., Owens, D., Barry, M., Caughey, A., & Davidson, K. et al. (2019). Interventions to Prevent Perinatal Depression. JAMA, 321(6), 580. https://doi.org/10.1001/jama.2019.0007Links to an external site.

Martín-Gómez, C. et al., 202 Moreno-Peral, P., Bellón, J., Conejo Cerón, S., Campos-Paino, H., & Gómez-Gómez, I. et al. (2020). Effectiveness of psychological, psychoeducational, and psychosocial interventions to prevent postpartum depression in adolescent and adult mothers: study protocol for a systematic review and meta-analysis of randomized controlled trials. BMJ Open, 10(5), e034424. https://doi.org/10.1136/bmjopen-2019-034424Links to an external site.