PATHWAYS FOR WOMEN’S INFORMATION LEVELS REGARDING PRENATAL AND POSTNATAL HEALTH AND POSTPARTUM DEPRESSION

Seeking healthcare information can increase an individual’s health knowledge and improve self-care capabilities. Despite recognition that information may influence health behaviours, there is limited research on the explicit relationship between acquired pre- and postnatal health information levels and postpartum depression (PPD). Data for primiparous and multiparous subjects were analyzed from the 2006 Maternity Experiences Survey developed by Statistics Canada and the Public Health Agency of Canada. The first objective examines pathways of women’s pre- and postnatal health information levels. The second objective assesses the influence of information levels on PPD development. A Multiple-Indicator Multiple- Cause (MIMIC) model was designed with the Edinburgh Postnatal Depression Scale (EPDS) as the outcome measure. Income and perceived level of prenatal and postnatal social support were statistically significant predictors of acquired information levels. Increased information levels on ‘postnatal concerns’, ‘medical concerns’, ‘negative feelings’ and Tabour/birth experience’ topics were significantly associated with lower EPDS scores

The effects of publishing emergency department wait time on patient utilization patterns in a community with two emergency department sites: a retrospective, quasi-experiment design

BACKGROUND: Providing emergency department (ED) wait time information to the public has been suggested as a mechanism to reduce lengthy ED wait times (by enabling patients to select the ED site with shorter wait time), but the effects of such a program have not been evaluated. We evaluated the effects of such a program in a community with two ED sites. METHODS: Descriptive statistics for wait times of the two sites before and after the publication of wait time information were used to evaluate the effects of the publication of wait time information on wait times. Multivariate logistical regression was used to test whether or not individual patients used published wait time to decide which site to visit. RESULTS: We found that the rates of wait times exceeding 4 h, and the 95th percentile of wait times in the two sites decreased after the publication of wait time information, even though the average wait times experienced a slight increase. We also found that after controlling for other factors, the site with shorter wait time had a higher likelihood of being selected after the publication of wait time information, but there was no such relationship before the publication. CONCLUSIONS: These findings were consistent with the hypothesis that the publication of wait time information leads to patients selecting the site with shorter wait time. While publishing ED wait time information did not improve average wait time, it reduced the rates of lengthy wait times

Examining the pathways of pre- and postnatal health information

Objectives: The objectives of our study were to 1) assess Canadian women\u27s health information levels regarding pre- and postnatal topics in both primiparous and multiparous samples, and 2) identify factors associated with levels of health information in both groups and the pathways of such associations. Methods: Data from the 2006 Maternity Experiences Survey developed by the Canadian Perinatal Surveillance System (N=6,421) were used. The study population included mothers ≥15 years of age at the time of the birth, who had a singleton live birth in Canada during a three-month period preceding the 2006 Census and who lived with their infants at the time of the survey. Structural equation modeling was used to identify and examine pre- and postnatal acquired health information components in both samples and to assess factors that may influence this level of information. Results: Primiparous and multiparous women perceived insufficient levels of information on similar topics: pain medication/anesthesia, warning signs/complications, formula feeding and changes in sexual responses. This common finding underscored that these informational needs had a large impact on the entire population of pregnant women, rather than being parity-specific. Level of perceived social support was positively associated with information acquisition on all health topics studied in both samples (p\u3c0.0001 for both). Income was also positively associated with information levels to a similar extent on a range of topics in both samples (p\u3c0.0001 - p\u3c0.05). Conclusions: Canadian primiparous and multiparous women perceived an inadequate level of information on the same topics, identifying knowledge gaps that should be addressed. Perceived level of social support and income significantly influenced information levels on pre- and postnatal health topics. Therefore women with low income and those with perceived lack of social support may be identified by health care providers as requiring additional health information. © Canadian Public Health Association, 2012