Sample

Arab women over 18 years waiting for prenatal appointments at the Women’s Hospital of Hamad Medical Corporation (Qatar) were recruited. English forms were translated into Qatari Arabic and back-translated by a separate translator to ensure their standard administration. Prior to data collection, cognitive interviews were conducted by trained interviewers among women varied on demographic attributes to ensure local acceptance of topics, wording, and item order. Informed consent and quantitative interviews that covered demographics, resources, agency, and prenatal mental health were administered verbally in language of choice (Arabic or English). The study was approved by the institutional review boards of all collaborating institutions; Hamad Medical Corporation, Emory University, and Qatar University. A fixed interval sampling procedure with replacement was used in that every 7th eligible woman was approached, until satisfying the proposed sample size for completed interviews. Supervisors randomly chose starting points between 1 and 7 each day. The interval was chosen based on pilot testing patient flow. Interviews were conducted in private areas of the clinic. Data collection occurred from January through February of 2017. Of 5896 eligible patients, 840 were invited to participate: 667 completed the interview (response rate: 79.1%); 125 women refused participation, 48 interviews were incomplete, and 2 cases were lost due to ineligibility. Most women who declined participation, did so due to lack of time; incomplete interviews occurred when the woman did not return to complete an interview after her appointment. The prenatal mental health module was estimated to take approximately 10–15 min of the full interview (approximately 55 min).