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. 2021 Apr 27;4(2):e16280.
doi: 10.2196/16280.

Leveraging Digital Technology in Conducting Longitudinal Research on Mental Health in Pregnancy: Longitudinal Panel Survey Study

Beth McGee #  1 , Marie Leonte #  1 , Kevin Wildenhaus #  2 , Marsha Wilcox #  2 , Jenna Reps #  2 , Lauren LaCross #  1
Affiliations

Leveraging Digital Technology in Conducting Longitudinal Research on Mental Health in Pregnancy: Longitudinal Panel Survey Study

Beth McGee et al. JMIR Pediatr Parent. .

Abstract

Background: Collecting longitudinal data during and shortly after pregnancy is difficult, as pregnant women often avoid studies with repeated surveys. In contrast, pregnant women interact with certain websites at multiple stages throughout pregnancy and the postpartum period. This digital connection presents the opportunity to use a website as a way to recruit and enroll pregnant women into a panel study and collect valuable longitudinal data for research. These data can then be used to learn new scientific insights and improve health care.

Objective: The objective of this paper is to describe the approaches applied and lessons learned from designing and conducting an online panel for health care research, specifically perinatal mood disorders. Our panel design and approach aimed to recruit a large sample (N=1200) of pregnant women representative of the US population and to minimize attrition over time.

Methods: We designed an online panel to enroll participants from the pregnancy and parenting website BabyCenter. We enrolled women into the panel from weeks 4 to 10 of pregnancy (Panel 1) or from weeks 28 to 33 of pregnancy (Panel 2) and administered repeated psychometric assessments from enrollment through 3 months postpartum. We employed a combination of adaptive digital strategies to recruit, communicate with, and build trust with participants to minimize attrition over time. We were transparent at baseline about expectations, used monetary and information-based incentives, and sent personalized reminders to reduce attrition. The approach was participant-centric and leveraged many aspects of flexibility that digital methods afford.

Results: We recruited 1179 pregnant women-our target was 1200-during a 26-day period between August 25 and September 19, 2016. Our strategy to recruit participants using adaptive sampling tactics resulted in a large panel that was similar to the US population of pregnant women. Attrition was on par with existing longitudinal observational studies in pregnant populations, and 79.2% (934/1179) of our panel completed another survey after enrollment. There were 736 out of 1179 (62.4%) women who completed at least one assessment in both the prenatal and postnatal periods, and 709 out of 1179 (60.1%) women who completed the final assessment. To validate the data, we compared participation rates and factors of perinatal mood disorders ascertained from this study with prior research, suggesting reliability of our approach.

Conclusions: A suitably designed online panel created in partnership with a digital media source that reaches the target audience is a means to leverage a conveniently sized and viable sample for scientific research. Our key lessons learned are as follows: sampling tactics may need to be adjusted to enroll a representative sample, attrition can be reduced by adapting to participants' needs, and study engagement can be boosted by personalizing interactions with the flexibility afforded by digital technologies.

Keywords: digital; longitudinal; mental health; panel; perinatal; postpartum; pregnancy; study design.

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Conflict of interest statement

Conflicts of Interest: JR and KW are employees of Janssen Research & Development and are shareholders of Johnson & Johnson. Janssen, a division of Johnson & Johnson, funded this study. BM, ML, and LL were employees of BabyCenter at the time of the study; BabyCenter was a division of Johnson & Johnson and received financial compensation for the research conducted. They are shareholders of Johnson & Johnson. MW was an employee of Janssen Research & Development and is a shareholder of Johnson & Johnson.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Survey floater invitation on a mobile device. The advert shows a smiling pregnant lady with the text “Pregnant? We Need You! Take short surveys and help other moms.”
Figure 2
Figure 2
Assessment protocol overview.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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