JMIR Publications

ABSTRACT

Background:

Globally, high rates of maternal and infant mortality call for interventions during the perinatal period to engage pregnant women, and their loved ones, to ensure they remain in care. Mobile health (mHealth) technologies have become ubiquitous in our lives and healthcare settings and hold promise for improving maternal health outcomes. However, there is a need to further explore their safety and effectiveness to support and improve health outcomes, locally and globally.

Objective:

Review and synthesize published literature that described the development process or effectiveness evaluations of maternal/infant apps with a specific emphasis on determining the apps’ target population usage; evidence of outcomes with mothers, fathers, infants, or children; and whether the apps have been reviewed or endorsed by a healthcare provider.

Methods:

We used the scoping review approach originally described by Arksey and O’Malley, the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses extension for Scoping Reviews (PRISMA-ScR) reporting guidelines, and Covidence review management software to enhance transparency in our approach to this scoping review study.

Results:

A total of 1027 were included in title and abstract screening. Full text screening commenced with 87 articles, 74 of which were excluded with reasons. Four articles were added at data extraction from hand searching. Ultimately, we reviewed and synthesized data from 11 unique studies reported in 23 articles, published between 2017 and 2021. Included studies represented 8 different countries. Most apps were English, although apps were also developed in Arabic, Bahasa Indonesia, and Nepali. Articles reviewed revealed the early stage of development of the fields of maternal/infant apps with modest evidence of app usage and achievement of study outcomes. Only one app was endorsed by an independent healthcare provider society. App development and evaluation processes emerged and there specific app features have been identified as vital for well-functioning apps. End-user engagement occurred in some parts, but not all, of app research and development.

Conclusions:

Apps to improve maternal/infant health are developed and launched in enormous numbers with many of them are not developed with mothers’ needs in mind. There are concerns about privacy, safety, and standardization of current apps and a need for professional or institution-specific guidelines or best practices. Despite challenges inherent in currently available apps and their design processes, maternal/infant app technology holds promise for achieving health equity goals and improving maternal child health outcomes. Finally, we propose recommendations for advancing the knowledge base for maternal/infant apps. Clinical Trial: Not applicable