Effectiveness of technology-based interventions for improving sleep among children: a systematic review and meta-analysis.

OBJECTIVE

The aim of this systematic review and meta-analysis was to analyze the characteristics and effectiveness of technology-based interventions in improving children sleep.

METHODS

PubMed, Embase, PsycInfo, CENTRAL and Web of Science were searched to identify research articles published until 11 August 2021. The protocol for this study was registered with PROSPERO (CRD42021272348). Articles screening, data extraction and quality assessment were carried out by two independent reviewers.

RESULTS

In total, the search generated 4597 studies. Of these, 15 studies (8 RCTs, 1 non-randomized control study and 6 pre-post studies) met our inclusion criteria. The meta-analysis indicated that technology-based interventions significantly increased the TST (SMD = 0.21, 95% CI = 0.06, 0.37; P = 0.007) and SE (SMD = 0.52, 95% CI = 0.17, 0.87; P = 0.003), and significantly decreased the SOL (SMD = -0.30, 95% CI = -0.47, -0.12; P = 0.001) and WASO (SMD = -0.33, 95% CI = -0.59, -0.07; P = 0.012).

CONCLUSION

This systematic review and meta-analysis suggests that technology-based interventions may be effective at improving children sleep due to the advantages of online intervention. Further researches are needed to establish which technology components are most effective in improving children sleep, as well as explore better methods for increasing consistency of participation and accuracy of outcome evaluation.