Literacy and Utilization of Maternal Depression Care

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DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): Nonpsychotic major depression (MOD) occurs in 10-20 percent of women within 6 months of delivery with higher rates seen following preterm birth. Patient factors which reduce participation in care for MOD are major barriers to the delivery of effective depression treatments. Adults with low literacy have higher risk of depressive symptomatology and less utilization of a variety of health care services 20-37 percent of women in populations most at risk for maternal health disparities have low literacy (< 6th grade). The health literacy construct, the capacity to access information needed for health decisions, has been proposed as a mediator of the association between low literacy and low health care service use. Assessing the role of low literacy in the utilization of care for MOD identified postpartum may allow interventions that would reduce barriers to treatment for this vulnerable population. This application outlines a mixed methods study (R03) in which qualitative methods will be added to an ongoing randomized controlled trial to treat risk factors for repeat preterm birth (n=1420). Participants who are diagnosed with DSM-IV MOD following an early preterm birth (<34 weeks EGA) will be offered a choice of free treatments (psychotherapy, antidepressant medication, or a combination of the two). The primary aims of this investigation of women with depression and low literacy (< 6th grade, n=117) are to: 1) Identify factors associated with accepting versus declining referral for depression care among women with high depressive symptomatology (CES-D 22); 2) Identify factors associated with accepting versus declining any of the active treatments for depression offered among women with DSM-IV MOD; and 3) ldentify factors associated with depression treatment continuation versus discontinuation among women with DSM-IV MOD. The proposed study will take advantage of extensive quantitative data collected in the parent study which will be linked to qualitative analyses of transcripts from semi-structured interviews (n=60) and clinical interviews (n=40) The qualitative methods will greatly enhance the quantitative assessments, provide an opportunity to clarify inconsistencies in results, and an opportunity to uncover novel factors linking health literacy and depression treatment utilization. This study represents a unique and cost effective opportunity to study patient factors which are obstacles to depression treatment in women with low literacy and inform future interventions.