Table 2.
Health outcomes measured at six weeks according to allocation to extra postnatal support or control group. Figures are means (SD) scores* unless stated otherwise
| Intervention
|
Control
|
Mean difference (95% CI) | P value for difference† | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| No of women | Mean (SD) | No of women | Mean (SD) | ||||
| SF-36 general health perception | 276 | 75.1 (18.4) | 263 | 76.7 (18.6) | −1.6 (−4.7 to 1.4) | 0.22 | |
| Physical functioning | 278 | 86.9 (16.0) | 265 | 89.1 (15.4) | −2.2 (−4.6 to 0.5) | 0.01 | |
| Social functioning | 281 | 76.4 (24.1) | 268 | 80.2 (23.8) | −3.8 (−7.7 to 0.3) | 0.03 | |
| Role limitation—physical | 275 | 65.2 (39.4) | 260 | 73.2 (38.8) | −7.9 (−14.6 to 0.9) | 0.008 | |
| Role limitation—emotional | 275 | 77.3 (35.3) | 259 | 77.4 (36.6) | −0.1 (−6.5 to 6.1) | 0.77 | |
| Mental health | 282 | 72.0 (17.5) | 268 | 72.7 (17.8) | −0.7 (−3.8 to 2.2) | 0.60 | |
| Vitality | 282 | 49.7 (21.3) | 268 | 50.3 (20.9) | −0.6 (−4.1 to 3.0) | 0.81 | |
| Pain | 282 | 70.7 (24.3) | 268 | 73.8 (24.9) | −3.0 (−6.9 to 1.1) | 0.08 | |
| Health change | 282 | 63.9 (26.1) | 269 | 65.6 (26.2) | −2.0 (−6.0 to 3.2) | 0.39 | |
| Duke functional social support | 260 | 16.7 (6.7) | 253 | 16.6 (7.4) | 0.0 (−1.3 to 1.3) | 0.63 | |
| Edinburgh postnatal depression scale | 276 | 7.4 (5.2) | 266 | 6.7 (5.5) | 0.7 (−0.2 to 1.6) | 0.05 | |
| No who breastfed only | 280 | 87 | 268 | 72 | 0.55§ | ||
| No who formula fed only | 280 | 154 | 268 | 155 | |||
| No who used mixed feeding | 280 | 39 | 268 | 41 | |||
*
For all measures higher scores indicate better health except for Duke functional support scale and Edinburgh postnatal depression scale, when higher scores indicate poorer health.
†
All P values are from Mann-Whitney test, which compares distributions of two groups, except §χ2=1.21 on 2 df, P=0.55. Bootstrap 95% confidence intervals (CI) calculated for characteristic of distributions (for example, mean difference) by centile method. Groups may have differences in distributions but similar characteristics (for example, means).