DAWN-P feasibility RCT (Version1)
Research type
Research Study
Full title
Digital Assessment of Wellbeing in New Parents (DAWN-P): a feasibility study of digital screening for postnatal depression
IRAS ID
320610
Contact name
Emily Eisner
Contact email
Sponsor organisation
Greater Manchester Mental Health NHS Foundation Trust
ISRCTN Number
ISRCTN10781027
Duration of Study in the UK
1 years, 8 months, 1 days
Research summary
Around 17 mothers and 9 fathers in every 100 experience depression in the year after their baby’s birth. Untreated postnatal depression is hugely disruptive for parents and their children, and costly for the NHS.
Medication or talking therapy can successfully treat postnatal depression, but identifying who needs treatment is difficult. Around half of cases of postnatal depression are currently missed. Our study seeks to improve this vital step.
Most people of childbearing age (94%) own a smartphone. We developed a smartphone app that asks questions about parents’ daily mood to help identify postnatal depression quickly and efficiently. In 2020, we ran a small study and found this ‘digital screening’ accurately identified parents needing postnatal depression treatment. Now we want to compare our digital screening app to usual NHS care in an NIHR-funded Randomised Controlled Trial.
We aim to recruit 80 women and birthing people in late pregnancy (after 36 weeks gestation) from St Mary’s Hospital and Whiston Hospital. We will divide these participants, by chance, into two groups of 40. The first group will receive usual NHS care. The second group will receive usual NHS care plus the digital screening app (until 8 weeks postpartum). We will also invite up to 20 partners/fathers to use the app.
We will gather information from all participants using questionnaires and phone interviews when participants start the study, when their babies are 8 weeks old, and again when their baby is 6 months old. Assessments will ask about mood, NHS resource use and app acceptability. If a parent from either group has possible postnatal depression, they will receive an extra phone call assessment and signposting. We will also conduct qualitative interviews with 30 women and birthing people from group who were offered the app, 20 partners and 30 healthcare professionals.
REC name
North West - Greater Manchester West Research Ethics Committee
REC reference
23/NW/0064
Date of REC Opinion
27 Mar 2023
REC opinion
Further Information Favourable Opinion