Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
. 2014 Oct;20(4):266-71.
doi: 10.4258/hir.2014.20.4.266. Epub 2014 Oct 31.

Impact of computer-based pregnancy-induced hypertension and diabetes decision AIDS on empowering pregnant women

Azam Aslani  1 , Fatemeh Tara  2 , Lila Ghalighi  3 , Omid Pournik  1 , Sabine Ensing  4 , Ameen Abu-Hanna  4 , Saeid Eslami  5
Affiliations

Impact of computer-based pregnancy-induced hypertension and diabetes decision AIDS on empowering pregnant women

Azam Aslani et al. Healthc Inform Res. 2014 Oct.

Abstract

Objectives: We designed a computer-based decision aid (CDA) for use by pregnant women at home to investigate and participate in solving their pregnancy problems related to pregnancy-induced hypertension (PIH) and gestational diabetes (GD). The system cannot and is not intended to replace visits to physicians; rather it can help women focus on the most important symptoms and provides guidance on when to see a doctor.

Methods: The study is a randomized controlled trial, which is performed among Iranian pregnant women. For subjects, 420 healthy pregnant women have been recruited from two private and two public prenatal centers. The intervention group will receive the CDA for use at home, and the control group will receive care as usual. The CDA relies on knowledge extracted from the national guidelines on PIH and GD.

Results: The two primary outcomes for the study are self-efficacy and knowledge. Self-efficacy will be measured by the Stanford self-efficacy scale and knowledge will be evaluated by 15 binary (true/false) questions provided by the researchers. Secondary outcomes include type and frequency of doctor and/or medical center visits; blood pressure and blood sugar changes based on the national guidelines and according to pregnancy records, and anxiety will be assessed by the state component of the short Spielberger anxiety scale.

Conclusions: This paper describes the design of a CDA and a protocol for a randomized controlled trial to study the effects of the CDA on self-efficacy and knowledge of pregnant women pertaining to PIH and GD. Differences in the primary outcomes will be analyzed using 'intention-to-treat' principles.

Keywords: Decision Aid; Decision Support Technique; Gestational Diabetes; Pregnancy-Induced Hypertension; Prenatal Education.

PubMed Disclaimer

Conflict of interest statement

No potential conflict of interest relevant to this article was reported.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
The process of recommendations' suggestion in the computerized decision aid for PIH and GD (CDA-PIHGD). PIH: pregnancy-induced hypertension, GD: gestational diabetes, BMI: body mass index.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

References

    1. Iran at a glance [Internet] Tehran: United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA); c2012. [cited at 2014 Sep 15]. Available from: http://iran.unfpa.org/Country%20Profile.asp.
    1. Cunningham FG, Leveno KJ, Bloom SL, Hauth JC, Rouse DJ, Spong CY. Williams Obstetrics. 24th ed. New York (NY): McGraw-Hill Education; 2014.
    1. Hicks R. Managing gestational diabetes in pregnancy [Internet] London: WebMD; c2014. [cited at 2014 Sep 15]. Available from: http://www.webmd.boots.com/diabetes/guide/managing-gestational-diabetes-....
    1. Unicef. Statistics: Iran, Islamic Republic of [Internet] New York (NY): Unicef; c2013. [cited at 2014 Sep 15]. Available from: http://www.unicef.org/infobycountry/iran_statistics.html.
    1. Beigi M, Javanmardi Z, Shahidi S. Interventions to decrease the mortality rate among pregnant women. Iran J Nurs Midwifery Res. 2009;14(3):151–154.