Analysis of Mood and Anxiety Disorder Content in Common U.S. Obstetrics and Gynecology Residency Educational Resources.

Purpose: This study investigates mental health-related content to delineate potentially deficient topics for improvement in future obstetrics and gynecology (OBGYN) resident educational curriculum initiatives.

Method: In this quantitative content analysis, educational resources commonly used by OBGYN residents were selected based on a 2020 multi-institutional survey of OBGYN residents and informal group discussion with 32 OBGYN residents from a New York academic institution in April 2020. After independent screening, the authors iteratively developed, tested, and implemented a coding scheme for relevant keywords. The primary outcome was total depression and anxiety content in the educational resource materials. Information about other mental health conditions was additionally collected, and content ratings were assigned. Descriptive statistics were used and interrater reliability calculated. Data were accessed and archived on July 30, 2020, for all future analyses.

Results: From 7 materials reviewed, 36 items were analyzed. The cumulative percentage of resources with mental health-related content was 1.1%. Professional society publications contained the most content at 5.0% (95% CI, 1.4%-12.3%), and a podcast series contained the least at 0.6% (95% CI, 0.02%-3.3%). Depressive (30 [83.3%]), anxiety (12 [33.3%]), and bipolar (9 [25.0%]) disorders were the most common content, whereas posttraumatic stress disorder (5 [13.9%]), postpartum psychosis (4 [11.1%]), obsessive compulsive disorder (3 [8.3%]), and schizophrenia (2 [5.6%]) were the least. The content ratings for schizophrenia, postpartum psychosis, posttraumatic stress disorder, obsessive compulsive disorder, pathophysiology of mental health conditions, lactation safety, and fetal and maternal adverse effects of psychiatric medications and psychiatric disease were low. No educational resource reviewed in this study contained all recommended Council on Resident Education in Obstetrics and Gynecology residency curriculum topics related to mental health.

Conclusions: Mental health disorders are underrepresented in commonly used OBGYN educational resources, reinforcing the need for more comprehensive inclusion of these topics in OBGYN curriculum initiatives.