Health education interventions for preventing of postpartum depression: a literature review

Abstract

Background: Postpartum depression (PPD) has been found to be international major health problem affecting 8,2-48,1% of postpartum mothers which can affect not only mothers but also their babies. Therefore, prevention of PPD is necessary. Objective: The purpose of this literature review was to assess the effectiveness of health education interventions in preventing PPD. Methods: A literature review based on PRISMA guidelines. This review search using three  electronic databases—PubMed, Science Direct, Google Scholar between 2012 to 2022 with English language. Studies were selected if they (i) conducted with pregnant or postpartum (up to 12 months) women who were not severed-depressed at baseline were selected, (ii) the outcomes were the incidence of PPD and/or the reduction of postpartum depressive symptoms. Results: A total of 2351 studies were initially searched. After screened, 10 studies were included, reporting on 2272 pregnant and postpartum women. Eight out of 10 studies show that health education is effective in preventing postpartum depression. Group and individual health education both effective. Postpartum education with home visits is more effective (3/3 studies). Intervention programs based on the theoretical framework are more effective than others (3/3 studies). Conclusions: Evidence from a literature review shows that health education interventions implemented during pregnancy (last 3 months) and postpartum are effective in preventing postpartum depression compared with controls. Therefore, we recommend that for each intervention program, there should be more studies applied to different subjects to provide evidence of widespread application in the community.