Department of Applied Social Sciences, The Hong Kong Polytechnic University, Hong Kong, China (Hong Kong).
JMIR Mhealth Uhealth. 2019 Jan 30;7(1):e11836. doi: 10.2196/11836.
The use of social media and mobile health (mHealth) apps has been increasing in pregnancy care. However, the effectiveness of these interventions is still unclear.
We conducted a meta-analysis to examine the effectiveness of these interventions with regard to different health outcomes in pregnant and postpartum women and investigate the characteristics and components of interventions that may affect program effectiveness.
We performed a comprehensive literature search of major electronic databases and reference sections of related reviews and eligible studies. A random effects model was used to calculate the effect size.
Fifteen randomized controlled trial studies published in and before June 2018 that met the inclusion criteria were included in the meta-analysis. The interventions were effective in promoting maternal physical health including weight management, gestational diabetes mellitus control, and asthma control with a moderate to large effect size (d=0.72). Large effect sizes were also found for improving maternal mental health (d=0.84) and knowledge about pregnancy (d=0.80). Weight control interventions using wearable devices were more effective.
Social media and mHealth apps have the potential to be widely used in improving maternal well-being. More large-scale clinical trials focusing on different health outcomes are suggested for future studies.
社交媒体和移动健康 (mHealth) 应用在妊娠护理中的使用日益增加。然而，这些干预措施的有效性仍不清楚。
我们进行了荟萃分析，以检查这些干预措施在不同健康结果方面对孕妇和产后妇女的有效性，并探讨可能影响方案有效性的干预措施的特点和组成部分。
我们对主要电子数据库和相关综述的参考文献部分进行了全面的文献检索，并对符合条件的研究进行了随机效应模型分析。
纳入了 15 项符合纳入标准的发表于 2018 年 6 月之前的随机对照试验研究。这些干预措施在促进产妇身体健康方面是有效的，包括体重管理、妊娠糖尿病控制和哮喘控制，具有中等至较大的效果量 (d=0.72)。在改善产妇心理健康 (d=0.84) 和妊娠知识 (d=0.80) 方面也发现了较大的效果量。使用可穿戴设备的体重控制干预措施更为有效。
社交媒体和 mHealth 应用有潜力在改善产妇福祉方面得到广泛应用。建议未来的研究进行更多关注不同健康结果的大规模临床试验。
