A systematic review assessing the maternal health-related digital health interventions for pregnant women and new mothers in developing countries
Description
Digital interventions show promise for improving maternal health, but evidence synthesis is limited by heterogeneous outcome reporting. Primarily, we assessed the effectiveness of digital health interventions in improving maternal health outcomes among pregnant and postpartum women in developing countries. In addition to this, we characterize the types and modalities of digital health interventions deployed for maternal health support in resource-limited and assessed the impact of these interventions. A total of five independent researchers systematically searched Scopus, EMBASE, PubMed, and Google Scholar to identify eligible studies published from January 2000 to June 2025. The studies included randomized controlled trials (RCTs), quasi-experimental studies, and observational studies on digital interventions. The Cochrane Risk of Bias Tool 2 (RoB 2) for randomized trials and the ROBINS-I V2 tool for observational and quasi-experimental studies were used to examine the risk of publication bias. We incorporated seven studies. The intervention group showed significant improvements in overall maternal health, including increased ANC attendance, receipt of tetanus toxoid injection, consultation with a doctor for spotting/bleeding, and reduced anxiety compared to the control group. Digital interventions, particularly interactive formats, improve key maternal health outcomes. Future studies should standardize outcome reporting to facilitate evidence synthesis.
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Institutions
- Bangladesh University of Health SciencesDhaka Division, Dhaka