eHealth Interventions in Prenatal and Postnatal Care in Iran: A Systematic Review

Abstract

<strong><em>Background & aim:</em></strong> Despite the growing popularity of electronic health interventions and their cost-effectiveness in the provision of care services and expansion of services to remote areas, its effectiveness in pregnancy and postpartum care has not been investigated. Therefore, this systematic review was conducted to review the effect of electronic interventions on the health of Iranian mothers.<br /> <strong><em>Methods</em></strong><strong><em>:</em></strong> The English databases including PubMed, Scopus, Web of Science, and Google Scholar as well as the Iranian databases of SID, Magiran, and Irandoc were searched within 2013-2019 using related keywords in order to obtain the Persian and English articles. Finally, six articles entered the study after the exclusion of duplicate, unrelated, and low-quality papers.<br /> <strong><em>Results:</em></strong> In total, 124 articles were retrieved and finally 6 articles remained. Two were pre/post and four were randomized trial studies. The studies have been conducted on a variety of topics, including awareness of the risks of pregnancy and postpartum health, transtheoretical model structures, care satisfaction, and breastfeeding self-efficacy. Different methods were used in these studies including Telegram, SMS, and Multimedia software. In total, all studies reported an increase in care quality<br /> <strong><em>Conclusion: </em></strong>Electronic learning interventions can effectively help to improve prenatal and postpartum care; however, there is no sufficient evidence to show the associated long-term effects.