The effect of supportive-educational intervention on psychological distress in pregnant women subjected to domestic violence: A randomized controlled trial

The experience of domestic violence has negative consequences on the mental health of pregnant women, and interventions must be designed to reduce these negative consequences. Therefore, the aim of this study was to determine the effect of supportive-educational intervention on psychological distress among pregnant women subjected to domestic violence.
Methods & Materials: This clinical trial was conducted on 100 pregnant women subjected to domestic violence, referred to comprehensive health centers of Zahedan for receiving prenatal care in 2018. Eligible women were selected by the convenience sampling method and randomly assigned into two groups of intervention and control. The intervention group received four supportive-educational individual sessions during two weeks. The control group received routine care during this period. Data were collected in two groups by the Kessler Psychological Distress Scale (K10) and Hurts, Insults, Threaten, Screams (HITS), before the intervention and four weeks after the intervention. The data were analyzed by statistical tests using the SPSS software version 21.

The results showed that the mean score of psychological distress of pregnant women dropped from 30.9±4.58 to 22.18±3.81 (mean change score -8.72±3.93) in the intervention group and from 25.22±4.15 to 24.06±4.16 (mean change score -1.16±1.48) in the control group. Analysis of covariance demonstrated that there was a statistically significant difference in the mean score of psychological distress of pregnant women exposed to violence between the two groups after the supportive-educational intervention (P<0.001).

The results of this study showed that the supportive-educational intervention is effective in reducing psychological distress in pregnant women subjected to violence. Therefore, it is recommended to integrate supportive-educational interventions into prenatal care for pregnant women subjected to violence in order to improve fetal and maternal health.