Faculty of Health Sciences, McMaster University, Hamilton, ON, Canada.
Department of Kinesiology, McMaster University, Hamilton, ON, Canada.
J Affect Disord. 2022 Jan 1;296:443-453. doi: 10.1016/j.jad.2021.09.106. Epub 2021 Oct 6.
Our objectives were to assess: (1) the effectiveness of existing mHealth apps for reducing symptoms of maternal depression and/or anxiety during the prenatal period and/or the first year postpartum, and (2) the app quality of commercially available apps targeting perinatal depression and/or anxiety.
To address Objective 1, we searched five electronic databases (MEDLINE, CINAHL, PsycINFO, Web of Science, and Embase) from their inception until May 3rd, 2021. For the second objective, we searched Google Play and Apple App Stores in the United States, United Kingdom, Canada, and Australia until May 3rd, 2021.
Our search identified 3,897 articles, seven of which were meta-analyzed. mHealth apps did not improve perinatal depression (SMD, -0.39; 95% CI, -0.80 to 0.03) or anxiety (SMD, 0.01; 95% CI, -0.13 to 0.16) within the first 3 months post-intervention or at 6 months post-intervention. Our search of app stores identified 74 commercially available apps, 37 of which were evaluated via MARS tool. Current apps for perinatal anxiety and/or depression were rated to be of moderate quality on the MARS (mean, 3.6/5).
There is a small number of overall studies in this field and the individual studies have methodological limitations. Furthermore, few apps identified in our app store search have been clinically tested.
Despite their widespread availability, mHealth apps do not appear to effectively reduce perinatal depression or anxiety, and few were subjectively rated to be of high quality. There is a need to develop higher quality mHealth apps and assess their potential to improve perinatal maternal mental health.
我们的目标是评估：（1）现有的移动健康应用程序在减少产前和产后第一年产妇抑郁和/或焦虑症状方面的有效性，以及（2）针对围产期抑郁和/或焦虑的商业应用程序的应用程序质量。
为了实现目标 1，我们从成立之初到 2021 年 5 月 3 日，在五个电子数据库（MEDLINE、CINAHL、PsycINFO、Web of Science 和 Embase）中进行了搜索。为了实现目标 2，我们在美国、英国、加拿大和澳大利亚的 Google Play 和 Apple App Store 中进行了搜索，直到 2021 年 5 月 3 日。
我们的搜索确定了 3897 篇文章，其中 7 篇进行了荟萃分析。移动健康应用程序在干预后 3 个月内或干预后 6 个月内并未改善围产期抑郁（SMD，-0.39；95%CI，-0.80 至 0.03）或焦虑（SMD，0.01；95%CI，-0.13 至 0.16）。我们对应用程序商店的搜索确定了 74 个商业上可用的应用程序，其中 37 个应用程序通过 MARS 工具进行了评估。当前针对围产期焦虑和/或抑郁的应用程序在 MARS 上的评分被认为具有中等质量（平均，3.6/5）。
该领域的总体研究数量较少，个别研究存在方法学限制。此外，我们在应用程序商店搜索中确定的很少应用程序已经过临床测试。
尽管移动健康应用程序广泛可用，但它们似乎并不能有效地减轻围产期抑郁或焦虑，而且很少有应用程序被主观评为高质量。需要开发更高质量的移动健康应用程序，并评估它们改善围产期产妇心理健康的潜力。
