Purpose: This study investigated the effectiveness of a happiness counseling program on depression, anxiety, and stress in pregnant women with a history of recurrent miscarriage.
Patients and methods: A parallel randomized controlled trial research design was used in this study, which was conducted at the high-risk inpatient unit of the Obstetrics and Gynecology Hospital of Cairo University Hospitals in Cairo, Egypt. A total of 60 pregnant women who had previously experienced multiple miscarriages were randomly assigned to intervention and control groups (n=30 each). The tools used for data collection were demographic and obstetric data questionnaires and the 21-item Depression, Anxiety, and Stress Scale (DASS-21). Happiness counseling sessions were conducted for the intervention group. Data for qualitative variables were analyzed with the chi-squared test, and the Student's t test for paired samples was used to compare mean DASS-21 scores of the intervention and control groups. The Pearson correlation coefficient was used to analyze the association between variables.
Results: The happiness counseling sessions reduced depression, anxiety, and stress in women with recurrent miscarriage, resulting in lower mean DASS-21 scores for the intervention group compared to the control group.
Conclusion: The happiness counseling program had a positive effect on reducing depression, anxiety, and stress in women with recurrent miscarriage. We recommend that this program be used as an effective, low-cost, and noninvasive intervention to improve the mental health and overall wellbeing of women with recurrent miscarriage.
Keywords: anxiety; depression; happiness counseling program; recurrent miscarriage; stress.
© 2021 Elsharkawy et al.