Accepted for/Published in: Journal of Medical Internet Research
Date Submitted: Dec 9, 2019
Date Accepted: Apr 27, 2020
Warning: This is an author submission that is not peer-reviewed or edited. Preprints - unless they show as "accepted" - should not be relied on to guide clinical practice or health-related behavior and should not be reported in news media as established information.
Effectiveness of Internet-based E-technology Interventions on Breastfeeding Outcomes Among Women: Systematic Review
ABSTRACT
Background:
Supporting women to initiate and continue breastfeeding regardless of its benefits is a global challenge. A range of e-technologies breastfeeding interventions are being developed that offers different delivery mode and features over the internet, however, the impact of the internet e-technologies on breastfeeding outcomes remains unclear.
Objective:
The objective of this review was to investigate the effects of internet-based e-technologies on breastfeeding outcomes and identify the characters of the current internet e-technology breastfeeding interventions.
Methods:
Search was conducted in accordance with Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses guidelines in the following databases: Google Scholar, Scopus, The Association for Computing Machinery, Springer Link, Web of Science, Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers Xplore, Science Direct and The Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews.
Results:
This systematic review included 16 studies published from 2007 to 2018 with a total of 4018 women in eight countries from diverse settings and study designs. Modes of delivery for e-technologies breastfeeding interventions were (1) computer-based, (2) web-based and (3) mobile applications. Based on our analysis, the following themes were identified in the e-technology interventions: Education, Support, Tele-Consultation, Breastfeeding Tracking, Breastfeeding Stations Locator. Features recognized in the internet e-technologies interventions were: Monitoring, Motivation, Computer agent, Personalization and Online discussion forums. The most reported outcome of these interventions was breastfeeding education (n=38.9%). Studies demonstrated promise for the use of internet e-technologies in breastfeeding interventions, However, support and education through web-based interventions demonstrated a significant effect on exclusive breastfeeding.
Conclusions:
The results of this study present a unique insight into the use of e-technologies in breastfeeding interventions and their impact on breastfeeding outcomes. Providing education and support through motivational and monitoring features are the most effective way to improve breastfeeding intention and duration. However, more controlled trials are needed to identify the effectiveness of other types of e-technology based intervention.
Citation
Request queued. Please wait while the file is being generated. It may take some time.
Copyright
© The authors. All rights reserved. This is a privileged document currently under peer-review/community review (or an accepted/rejected manuscript). Authors have provided JMIR Publications with an exclusive license to publish this preprint on it's website for review and ahead-of-print citation purposes only. While the final peer-reviewed paper may be licensed under a cc-by license on publication, at this stage authors and publisher expressively prohibit redistribution of this draft paper other than for review purposes.