Student Research Committee, School of Allied Medical Sciences, Urmia University of Medical Sciences, Urmia, Iran.
School of Allied Medical Sciences, Urmia University of Medical Sciences, Urmia, Iran.
Int Breastfeed J. 2021 Sep 20;16(1):70. doi: 10.1186/s13006-021-00417-w.
Exclusive breastfeeding (EBF) is essential during the first six months of life and confers countless benefits to mothers and infants. This study aimed to assess the effectiveness of a smartphone-based educational intervention to improve new mothers' breastfeeding for infants younger than six months of age in Urmia, Iran.
A randomized controlled trial study was conducted from January to December 2019 with 40 new mothers and their first child aged < 3 months, assigned to the intervention (mobile app education + routine care) and control groups (routine care). The mean age of infants was 1.25 and 0.98 months for each group consequently. The designed app content categorized according to seven sections (the importance of breastfeeding, behavioral methods, complementary feeding and EBF, pumping and manual expression, managing common breast-related and breastfeeding problems, breastfeeding tips in special situations, and common queries) for educating the required knowledge to nursing mothers.
Forty mothers were assessed for primary outcomes in each group. At three months, the mothers' knowledge, attitude, and practice (KAP) had meaningful differences in the intervention group compared to the control group. In the intervention group, the degree of changes in knowledge and attitude were 5.67 ± 0.94 and 8.75 ± 1.37 respectively more than the control group (p < 0.001, p < 0.001). However, this amount for the practice score was 0.8 ± 0.49 which is considered to be marginally significant (p = 0.063). During the study, the mothers' breastfeeding self-efficacy showed significant progress in favor of the intervention group. The score enhancement was 26.85 ± 7.13 for the intervention group and only 0.40 ± 5.17 for the control group that was confirmed to be significant (p < 0.001).
The smartphone-based app for educating new mothers on breastfeeding had a significantly positive effect on breastfeeding self-efficacy and maternal KAP. In future studies, the intervention can be tested in both prenatal and postpartum periods.
纯母乳喂养（EBF）在婴儿生命的头六个月至关重要，能为母亲和婴儿带来无数益处。本研究旨在评估基于智能手机的教育干预措施对改善伊朗乌尔米亚地区 6 个月以下婴儿新母亲母乳喂养的效果。
这是一项 2019 年 1 月至 12 月进行的随机对照试验研究，共纳入 40 名新母亲及其年龄<3 个月的第一胎婴儿，分为干预组（移动应用程序教育+常规护理）和对照组（常规护理）。两组婴儿的平均年龄分别为 1.25 个月和 0.98 个月。设计的应用程序内容根据七个部分（母乳喂养的重要性、行为方法、补充喂养和 EBF、抽吸和手动表达、管理常见乳房相关和母乳喂养问题、特殊情况下的母乳喂养技巧以及常见问题）进行分类，为哺乳母亲提供所需的知识教育。
在每组中，有 40 名母亲评估了主要结局。在 3 个月时，干预组母亲的知识、态度和实践（KAP）与对照组有显著差异。在干预组中，知识和态度的变化程度分别比对照组多 5.67±0.94 和 8.75±1.37（p<0.001，p<0.001）。然而，实践评分的变化量为 0.8±0.49，这被认为是边缘显著（p=0.063）。在研究过程中，母亲的母乳喂养自我效能感显著提高，有利于干预组。干预组的得分提高了 26.85±7.13，而对照组仅提高了 0.40±5.17，这具有统计学意义（p<0.001）。
基于智能手机的母乳喂养教育应用程序对母乳喂养自我效能感和产妇 KAP 有显著的积极影响。在未来的研究中，可以在产前和产后阶段测试该干预措施。
