Student Research Committee, Urmia University of Medical Sciences, Urmia, Iran.
Department of Health Information Technology, Urmia University of Medical Sciences, Nazloo Campus, Sero Road, Urmia, Iran.
BMC Med Inform Decis Mak. 2019 Apr 5;19(1):83. doi: 10.1186/s12911-019-0803-2.
Malnutrition is one of the most important reasons for child mortality in developing countries, especially during the first 5 years of life. We set out to systematically review evaluations of interventions that use mobile phone applications to overcome malnutrition among preschoolers.
The review was conducted and reported according to the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic reviews and Meta-Analyses: the PRISMA statement. To be eligible, the study had to have evaluated mobile phone interventions to increase nutrition knowledge or enhance behavior related to nutrition in order to cope with malnutrition (under nutrition or overweight) in preschoolers. Articles addressing other research topics, older children or adults, review papers, theoretical and conceptual articles, editorials, and letters were excluded. The PubMed, Web of Science and Scopus databases covering both medical and technical literature were searched for studies addressing preschoolers' malnutrition using mobile technology.
Seven articles were identified that fulfilled the review criteria. The studies reported in the main positive signals concerning the acceptance of mobile phone based nutritional interventions addressing preschoolers. Important infrastructural and technical limitations to implement mHealth in low and middle income countries (LMICs) were also communicated, ranging from low network capacity and low access to mobile phones to specific technical barriers. Only one study was identified evaluating primary anthropometric outcomes.
The review findings indicated a need for more controlled evaluations using anthropometric primary endpoints and put relevance to the suggestion that cooperation between government organizations, academia, and industry is necessary to provide sufficient infrastructure support for mHealth use against malnutrition in LMICs.
营养不良是发展中国家儿童死亡的最重要原因之一，尤其是在生命的头 5 年。我们旨在系统地回顾评估使用手机应用程序克服学龄前儿童营养不良的干预措施。
该综述根据系统评价和荟萃分析的首选报告项目（PRISMA 声明）进行并报告。有资格的研究必须评估手机干预措施，以增加营养知识或增强与营养相关的行为，以应对学龄前儿童的营养不良（营养不足或超重）。排除了其他研究主题、年龄较大的儿童或成年人、综述论文、理论和概念文章、社论和信件的文章。使用移动技术解决学龄前儿童营养不良问题的研究在涵盖医学和技术文献的 PubMed、Web of Science 和 Scopus 数据库中进行了搜索。
确定了 7 篇符合审查标准的文章。这些研究报告主要传达了有关接受基于手机的营养干预措施的积极信号，这些措施针对学龄前儿童。在中低收入国家（LMICs）实施移动医疗也存在重要的基础设施和技术限制，包括网络容量低、手机接入低以及特定的技术障碍。只有一项研究评估了主要人体测量学结果。
综述结果表明需要进行更多使用人体测量学主要终点的对照评估，并证实了政府组织、学术界和行业之间合作的必要性，以提供足够的基础设施支持，在 LMICs 中使用移动医疗来对抗营养不良。
