Postpartum depression (PPD) is a significant health issue affecting rural Kenyan mothers, with limited access to screening tools and resources. A mixed-methods approach was employed, including surveys and interviews to assess app usage patterns and impact on PPD detection in a sample of 150 rural mothers. Users demonstrated high engagement with the app, achieving an average daily use rate of 72% over two months. The proportion of mothers correctly diagnosed with PPD using the app was found to be 85%, indicating moderate accuracy. The mobile health app showed promise in improving PP D screening access and efficacy among rural Kenyan mothers, particularly for those without immediate medical resources or transportation. Further studies should explore scalability and cost-effectiveness of the app across different geographic regions to ensure widespread accessibility. Postpartum depression, mobile health app, rural Kenya, user engagement, screening effectiveness Treatment effect was estimated with logit (pᵢ) =₀+^ Xᵢ, and uncertainty reported using confidence-interval based inference.
Mwathi et al. (2001) studied this question.